When the Netflix movie The Gray Man was first announced, reports suggested the streamer signed on in the hopes that the project would spark a franchise. And lo and behold, the Russo Brothers have just confirmed the movie will actually launch a franchise.
Fans of Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans, two of the hottest and most sought-after leading men in Hollywood, surely have something big and thrilling to look forward to.
The filmmakers behind Avengers: Endgame and Captain America: Civil War are set to helm the big-budget spy film for Netflix with Gosling and Evans at the top of the casting list. They have revealed the movie won’t “answer every question” audiences might have, because they want to leave room for future installments.
“What we’re doing on Gray Man that’s different [is]… we’re not gonna answer every question in the first movie,” explained Joe Russo in a CCXP event. “This is being conceived as a series of films, and again, potentially branching out, we could follow other characters, but we’re not gonna answer every question in the movie. So you’re gonna finish the movie, [and] have a complete story, but you’re still gonna have questions about the wider universe. And I think that’s one way to break the model a little bit, is to not give the audience everything in one film. Don’t have a close-ended narrative. Have an open-ended narrative that’s [like] a chapter in a book.”
“[We’re] guys who grew up on a steady diet of action thrillers. The cast is exceptional, the script is excellent,” boasted Joe Russo, who also revealed that he and his brother are just six weeks out from shooting The Gray Man. “We start shooting at the end of January here in Los Angeles, and then we have some work overseas in Europe after that in the spring.”
The action thriller follows a former CIA operative turned freelance assassin named Court Gentry, who is also known as the Gray Man. Gosling will play Gentry, who is hunted across the globe by his former CIA cohort Lloyd Hansen (Evans).
The Russos plan to shoot the film on location across the globe, as The Gray Man is supposed to feel massive in scale, and on par with Netflix’s most expensive movies.
“We have an incredible team and Netflix has been very supportive. [COVID] hasn’t impacted our location shooting,” said Joe Russo.
Joe further expressed that this is going to be a big, global spy thriller and it’s really important to the storytelling that they visit these different locations.
There’s no word yet on the release date of “The Gray Man”.
