Deadline reported that Netflix has committed the largest budget so far for "The Gray Man" which would be an espionage thriller. It will be Netflix’s biggest film with a $200 million and change — that’s a lot of cheddar, but the streaming service has become a destination for filmmakers partly due to its willingness to cut big checks.
The film will be produced by AGBO’s Russo Brothers and Mike Larocca, along with Joe Roth and Jeff Kirschenbaum for Roth Kirschenbaum. They are eyeing a January start date in Los Angeles with international locations being finalized.
The action thriller is a deadly duel between killers as Gentry (Gosling) is hunted across the globe by Lloyd Hansen (Evans), a former cohort of Gentry’s at the CIA. The Gray Man turned into a bestselling book series, and the expectation is that Gosling will continue in multiple installments. The project was developed years back at New Regency as a Brad Pitt/James Gray vehicle, but it stalled. The Russos quietly have been developing it for years.
“The movie is a real mano a mano between those two great actors who represent two different versions of the CIA, in what it can be, and what it can do,” Anthony Russo told Deadline. “For those who were fans of Captain America: Winter Soldier, this is us moving into that territory in more of a real-world setting. That’s what this movie really means for us.”
Said Joe Russo on the film’s scale: “The intention is for it to be competitive with any theatrical, and the ability to do with with Gosling and Evans is a dream for us. The idea is to create a franchise and build out a whole universe, with Ryan at the center of it. We have all committed to the first movie, and that’s got to be great to get us to the second movie. These are master assassins, and Gosling’s characters gets burned by the CIA and Evans’ character has to hunt him down. We have a great working relationship with Netflix, and we go back almost 20 years with Scott Stuber. We formed AGBO to be an agnostic storytelling company, where we figure out the best platform. We think Netflix is the perfect place for this film.”
The Russo brothers recently produced the Chris Hemsworth action movie Extraction for Netflix, which quickly became the most-watched original movie in the streamer’s history.
Ryan Gosling & Chris Evans will star in THE GRAY MAN
— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) July 17, 2020
The Russo Brothers will direct with Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely writing the script
It will be Netflix’s biggest film with a $200M budget. It follows a freelance assassin & a former CIA operative
(Source: Deadline) pic.twitter.com/ggS2AWcUc2
“ryan gosling being hunted by chris evans” is a sentence i never thought i would hear in my life i am actually going batshit crazy right now pic.twitter.com/2yorxOuMRc
— kelly (@gvnforhands) July 17, 2020
Netflix Commits Largest Budget So Far For ‘The Gray Man;’ Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans Star, Joe & Anthony Russo Direct Mano A Mano Espionage Thriller https://t.co/XwaH7V3CBG pic.twitter.com/HaAEbY4ocm
— Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) July 17, 2020
Chris Evans and Ryan Gosling are set to star in ‘Endgame’’ directors Joe and Anthony Russo’s ‘The Gray Man’, which centers on the Gray Man, a freelance assassin and former CIA operative (Gosling) who is hunted across the globe by his former cohort at the CIA (Evans). pic.twitter.com/RjZ62ucfEM
— Film Updates (@FilmUpdates) July 17, 2020
Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans in a movie together and it's being directed by the Russo Brothers... Damn. 🥺 pic.twitter.com/KR6Cni8vBr
— 🌸 Keleé (@kelee_issel) July 17, 2020
Netflix continues to invest big on content and potential winners https://t.co/xaxD7RQvzr via @cinemablend @netflix #Netflix
— The 1918 Company (@1918_the) July 17, 2020
i just think ryan gosling in ‘the nice guys’ pic.twitter.com/8uk6Pjs63n
— adam driver’s bitch | BLM (@driversenergy) July 17, 2020
