Netflix, Russo Brothers verge on handsome overload with pricey Evans/Gosling action franchise
“If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your planned franchise,” goes the old saying, one Joe and Anthony Russo appear not to have heard. Deadline reports that the MCU shepherds—they directed Winter Soldier, Civil War, Infinity War, and Endgame—are mapping out a “James Bond-level franchise-starter” based on Mark Greaney’s 2009 novel The Gray Man.
They’ve got the tools, with Netflix pumping upwards of $200 million into the project and Chris Evans and Ryan Gosling signed on to star. Throw in screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, who worked with the Russos at Marvel, and you’ve got what sounds like a sure thing. Of course, Universal once thought the same about is Dark Universe, but we digress.
The action thriller centers around Gosling’s Court Gentry, a “freelance assassin and former CIA operative” who, in this first installment, faces off against Evans’ Lloyd Hansen, an old CIA colleague of Gentry’s who we’re hoping is super evil so Evans, who’s too beautiful to be so good, gets to play someone super evil. Gosling is expected to return as Gentry in numerous sequels, and while there’s no word on whether Evans will stick around, we’d humbly suggest a Loki arc for his character.