Love them or hate them for their pervasive success with Marvel, the Russo Brothers know how to make interesting alchemy with actors and also understand how to subvert your expectations. Take their new CIA assassin thriller, “The Gray Man,” a movie where they take the uber-charming Ryan Gosling and turn him into a taciturn hitman, and cast the normally-heroic Chris Evans and turn him into an unhinged psychopath because that’s precisely the kind of script-flipping they love.
“It’s hard to find somebody at Chris Evans’ level to step into a villain,” director Joe Russo told Entertainment Weekly recently, “It’s why you traditionally don’t get a Ryan Gosling versus Chris Evans movie. But he’s at a point where playing the villain is more entertaining to him than playing a hero.”
“The Gray Man” is an adaptation of Mark Greaney’s book series and centers on an anonymous, skillful CIA operative, the psychopathic former colleague out to get him, and the global manhunt by international assassins around them.
The Russo brothers dipped their toes into the spy/thriller genre with “Captain America: Winter Soldier” but have only now dedicated an entire movie to the concept. “We’re big fans of the spy genre, and we’re always looking for ways of how to twist it, or supercharge it, or push it into areas that feel fresh,” Anthony Russo said in the same EW interview.
Here’s the official synopsis:
Court Gentry was plucked out of prison and recruited by Donald Fitzroy to become a ruthless, highly skilled ‘agency-sanctioned merchant of death.’ But when he unwittingly uncovers dark secrets about his own agency, the tables are turned, and he’s forced to go on the run. His former colleague, the psychopathic Lloyd Hansen, puts a bounty on his head, leaving Six pursued across the globe by international assassins. And the only person he can trust is fellow agent Dani Miranda who has his back, no matter how dangerous.
Costing $200 million, reportedly, and obviously ambitious, with more potential films on the way, “The Gray Man” boys will be joined by Ana de Armas (“No Time To Die”), Regé-Jean Page, known for his breakout role in the hit series “Bridgeton,” plus Jessica Henwick, Wagner Moura, Julia Butters, Alfre Woodard, and Billy Bob Thornton.
“The Gray Man” will hit theaters on July 15 before streaming on Netflix on July 22. Watch the new clip below: