Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans are set to co-star in a new Netflix thriller.
Both actors have joined a planned adaptation of The Gray Man, Mark Greaney’s 2009 novel of the same name.
According to Deadline, the project has a budget of around $200m, making it one of Netflix’s most expensive films so far (Michael Bay’s 6 Underground, starring Ryan Reynolds, reportedly cost $150m and was released in 2019 on the streaming platform).
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Brothers Anthony and Joe Russo, who have directed several Marvel films including Avengers: Endgame, are attached as filmmakers, and their company AGBO will produce the movie, the website reported on Friday.
“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,” Joe Russo told Deadline.
“The idea is to create a franchise and build out a whole universe, with Ryan at the centre of it. We have all committed to the first movie, and that’s got to be great to get us to the second movie.”
Anthony Russo said The Gray Man will explore similar inspirations to those in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (which he and his brother co-directed), but in “more of a real-world setting”.
Greaney’s The Gray Man features the character Court Gentry, a former CIA operative who will be played by Gosling. The book became the first of a series of thrillers.
Joe Russo told Deadline the team behind the movie hope to begin production “by late fall or early spring”, depending on the evolution of the coronavirus pandemic, which has caused massive delays across the film industry.