Workaholic Russo Brothers produce yet another superhero movie, this one in China

By William Hughes | May 10, 2016 | 10:18pm

Aux Features Film

Most of us would probably spend the week after opening one of the year’s biggest superhero movies by taking a break—maybe catch up on our reading for a bit, or chill out with an episode of Community. Not so Joe and Anthony Russo, whose Captain America: Civil War just kicked off the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Phase 3 with a bang, and who are apparently in China right now discussing their upcoming Mandarin-only sci-fi action film. (That’s Mandarin as in the language, not the classic Marvel villain that Ben Kingsley semi-portrayed in Iron Man 3.)

Titled The Hero’s Awakening, the movie is being produced through the Russos’ Anthem production studio, which they founded earlier this year to focus on making films for China’s massive, highly lucrative movie market. The film is being directed by Chinese director Feng Mushui, and, according to Joe Russo—who was also in the country to promote Civil War’s premiere—will be “wholly Chinese.” Going off of statements Russo made earlier this year, it also sounds like it might be a superhero origin story, proving that there are no cultural differences so wide that they can overpower movie makers’ pathological need to show audiences how every superpowered hero in moviedom got their start.