It's a pretty big mental stretch to imagine the good-hearted, iconic hero Captain America as a total psychopath, but The Russo Brothers and actor Chris Evans are taking a crack at the notion in their upcoming film, The Gray Man.
In a panel at Netflix Geeked Week, co-directors Anthony and Joe Russo talked about their long-running collaboration with Chris Evans in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which spanned Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame. Captain America, they say, was at the start and end of that story, and it allowed them not just to work with Evans in the role, but to talk to him at length about what other kinds of roles might be interesting to him.
It turns out, after playing the wholesome Captain America for so long, Evans was up for something riskier. And that's exactly what he's getting into with The Gray Man. As Anthony Russo puts it, "It's so far away from what he did as Captain America."
The Gray Man is a spy thriller based on the book series by Mark Greaney of the same name, and co-star Evans as a psychopathic ex-black ops mercenary trying to capture his former coworker who's still in the spy business, played by Ryan Gosling. The Russos explain that The Gray Man is very much a face-off between Evans and Gosling, with Evans in the obvious villain role, showing off his range and ability to play different styles and tones beyond just good-guy-hero.
"It reminds us of [Henry] Fonda in Once Upon a Time in the West, where he took this all-American reputation and put it at risk by playing, basically, a child-killer," said Joe Russo on the panel. "Evans is doing the same thing here: He’s playing a ferocious psychopath. Highly entertaining, very sarcastic, but does a lot of terrible things in the movie. That’s risky."
Geeked Week also gave us a brand new clip from The Gray Man showing off a head-to-head between Gosling and Evans. For the full rundown of everything to expect at Geeked Week, we've got a schedule covering it all, as well as our roundup of everything announced so far.
Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.
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In a panel at Netflix Geeked Week, co-directors Anthony and Joe Russo talked about their long-running collaboration with Chris Evans in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which spanned Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame. Captain America, they say, was at the start and end of that story, and it allowed them not just to work with Evans in the role, but to talk to him at length about what other kinds of roles might be interesting to him.
It turns out, after playing the wholesome Captain America for so long, Evans was up for something riskier. And that's exactly what he's getting into with The Gray Man. As Anthony Russo puts it, "It's so far away from what he did as Captain America."
The Gray Man is a spy thriller based on the book series by Mark Greaney of the same name, and co-star Evans as a psychopathic ex-black ops mercenary trying to capture his former coworker who's still in the spy business, played by Ryan Gosling. The Russos explain that The Gray Man is very much a face-off between Evans and Gosling, with Evans in the obvious villain role, showing off his range and ability to play different styles and tones beyond just good-guy-hero.
"It reminds us of [Henry] Fonda in Once Upon a Time in the West, where he took this all-American reputation and put it at risk by playing, basically, a child-killer," said Joe Russo on the panel. "Evans is doing the same thing here: He’s playing a ferocious psychopath. Highly entertaining, very sarcastic, but does a lot of terrible things in the movie. That’s risky."
Geeked Week also gave us a brand new clip from The Gray Man showing off a head-to-head between Gosling and Evans. For the full rundown of everything to expect at Geeked Week, we've got a schedule covering it all, as well as our roundup of everything announced so far.
Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.
Continue reading...