Netflx Sets Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans & Largest Budget To Date For Spy Action Film The Gray Man

Netflix has had some big-budget productions, but they’re going to a new level with the Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans-starring blockbuster The Gray Man. Deadline reports that the film will be directed by Joe and Anthony Russo in their first blockbuster film since Avengers: Endgame. The film will attempt to create a new franchise, with the site describing it as having a “James Bond level of scale” and a budget approaching $200 million.

The film was written by Joe Russo with some rewrite work by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, who wrote the Russos’ three Marvel Cinematic Universe films. The film is based on the Mark Greaney 2009 novel that introduced the titular character, an assassin and former CIA operative named Court Gentry. Gosling will play Gentry, who is being hunted across the world by his former CIA associate Lloyd Hansen (Evans).

The novel has become a full series that have registered as best-sellers, and the expectation is for a franchise running multiple installments. Brad Pitt was attached to a Gray Man project years ago before it fell apart, and the Russos have been quietly developing their take for years.

Anthony Russo told the outlet, “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. 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.”

Joe Russo added, “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.”