Russo brothers: ‘The Indian film industry is so vibrant, it rivals Hollywood’ | Eye News,The Indian Express
During their recent India visit, American filmmakers Anthony and Joe Russo talked about tapping Indian talent and the challenges of mounting large-scale entertainers
When American producer-director duo Joe and Anthony Russo — widely known as the Russo brothers — visited India last month, coinciding with the Netflix release on July 22 of their latest action thriller The Gray Man, they made it clear that they were aiming to grow their association with it. “I love India. So, we will keep casting Indian talent. The Indian film industry is so vibrant; it rivals Hollywood. There is so much talent here that’s untapped at an international level,” says Joe, 51, on his third visit to the country.
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The brothers, who have worked on major money-spinners like Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), Captain America: Civil War (2016). Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019), are familiar with Indian talent. For their 2020 Netflix movie Extraction, they worked with a bunch of Indian actors including Pankaj Tripathi and Randeep Hooda. In The Gray Man, Dhanush is the Lone Wolf and fights Ryan Gosling. The brothers, who have been heaping praise on Dhanush for being “a consummate professional”, have expressed their wish to work again with the Asuran (2019) actor. Meanwhile, they are working with Priyanka Chopra for the spy-thriller series Citadel. Their time in Mumbai was eventful. “Being here in India has let us see first-hand how much entertainment is thriving here,” says Anthony.
Based on the novel The Gray Man (2009) by Mark Greaney, the film was in the making for close to a decade. “We were in awe of Greaney’s writing and the amount of research he does. We are always on a quest to develop interesting sideways to a genre. Having been inspired by the ’70s thrillers that we grew up on, The Gray Man encompasses themes of a complex political rebellion against the system, and we have reflected on our own fears about the world,” says Joe. The Gray Man revolves around CIA operative Court Gentry (Gosling), aka, Sierra Six. As he is hunted across the globe by Lloyd Hansen (Chris Evans), a former cohort at the CIA, he finds support in Agent Dani Miranda (Ana de Armas).
Soon, a spin-off movie, written by screenwriters Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese (Deadpool, Zombieland), will explore a different element of The Gray Man universe. The plot line is being kept under wraps. Talking about the development of the sequel, Joe says, “With so many amazing characters in the movie, we had always intended for The Gray Man to be part of an expanded universe. We are thrilled that Netflix is announcing a sequel with Ryan, as well as a second script that we’re excited to talk about soon,” says Joe. Next year, they are coming up with another sequel, Extraction 2, an action thriller directed by Sam Hargrave and written by Joe.
Rating: 5