Coming off of directing two of the biggest films of all time, “Avengers: Infinity War” and “Avengers: Endgame,” the Russo Brothers could have chosen any feature to be their first non-Marvel film in years. And what they chose is the upcoming drama, “Cherry.” And according to a new preview from Vanity Fair, just because “Cherry” doesn’t have superheroes and a purple villain, this feature is still an epic.
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“We do think about it as an epic film, and it is very much a person’s life journey,” said Anthony Russo. “But it does have a little bit of a split personality between being this character study and an epic life cycle.”
“Cherry” tells the story of an ex-soldier that comes home from war and suffers from PTSD due to his time in the service. He self-medicates with opioids and becomes addicted. This leads him down a criminal path that forever changes the course of his life.
“He travels a great distance over a 15-year period,” Joe Russo added. “The movie’s broken up into six chapters that reflect those different periods, and each one has a different tone. It’s shot with different lenses, different production design. One’s got magical realism. Another chapter is absurdism. Another is horror…There’s a bit of gonzo in it. It’s raw in its tone. He’s a character in existential crisis.”
Of course, perhaps the biggest selling point to this film is the fact that the Russo Brothers are reuniting with their Marvel Studios colleague, Tom Holland, who starred in three films from the filmmakers, “Captain America: Civil War,” “Avengers: Infinity War,” and “Avengers: Endgame.” But “Cherry” is a very different beast than those films. That said, they feel that Holland is more than capable of going from Peter Parker to a PTSD-suffering ex-soldier with a drug problem.
“When Tom walked into the room…what, six years ago? He was younger, raw. His charisma just blew us away,” said Anthony Russo. “There was an effortless charm to him. As an actor, that is very difficult to replicate. He’s just so likable. We knew for this part we were going to need someone of Tom’s charisma to keep the audience from shutting down during the darker parts of the film.”
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“Cherry” is based on the novel by Nico Walker, with the script co-written by Angela Russo-Otstot (“The Shield”) and Jessica Goldberg (“The Path”). “Cherry” will debut in theaters on February 26 and then hits Apple TV+ on March 12. You can see all of the new pictures from the film below.
