While promoting their upcoming film Cherry, directors Joe and Anthony Russo spoke with the Lights Camera Barstool podcast (spotted and transcribed by The Playlist) and revealed they’d still love to get their hands on Marvel’s reboot of Wolverine. The pair continually brings up Wolverine and Secret Wars as things that could draw them back to Marvel Studios.
JOE RUSSO: “Wolverine has always been such a special character for me. To realize him on screen, it’s very hard because Hugh Jackman‘s performance is definitive. It’s like Batman; you have to really think of a way to, you have to really find the right actor to come in and give a really different take to that character. But I would really love to see him on screen.”
However, Joe advises that the studio give the franchise some time before jumping into a reboot.
JOE RUSSO: “I think the best thing is to take a break, without question. You need a [palate cleanser], you need to rinse the towel a little bit, let everyone enjoy what was, and then come up with something new. But I’d love to take a crack at Wolverine at some point.”
We already got some signs from Marvel’s Kevin Feige they’re not in any rush to reboot as they’ve chosen to go with Fantastic Four first. It’s still unknown what they ultimately plan to do with Wolverine and the X-Men reboots. Even though, they’ve introduced things like S.W.O.R.D. and Madripoor that are directly connected to the X-Men comics.
There is a good chance they could be able to convince Marvel Studios to allow them direct a Wolverine or X-Men project if they’re that persistent about being able to play with the characters. They were able to bring new blood to both the Captain America and Avengers franchises, with the latter Marvel now hold the box office record for the highest grossing film as Avengers: Endgame toppled James Cameron’s Avatar.
Given their experience working with large groups of heroes and villains, The Russo Brothers could be alongside screenwriters Stephen McFeely and Christopher Markus might be the team to reboot the X-Men. We’ve already seen Marvel look at their existing directing bench for the Fantastic Four reboot as they announced in December that Spider-Man 3 director Jon Watts would be tackling it.
Wolverine certain could deserve to have his origin retold for the Marvel Cinematic Universe either connected to Alpha Flight or the Weapon X Program. I also believe that a project set during WWII giving them an excuse to have Wolverine in a period action-film. A solo project could give a new actor a great entry point and give the main X-Men reboot some space, as one of the big gripes that fans had with the Fox franchise is that Wolverine was the predominate character when he isn’t supposed to be.
Ryan Reynolds revealed on Twitter last month that one of the ideas they had for Deadpool 3 before the merger was convincing Hugh Jackman to end his retirement as they wanted Logan and Wade to do a road trip movie. They could also eventually meet up in an X-Force film.
It’s critical to have open, honest and healthy discussions around mental health. By retweeting #BellLetsTalk you can make a difference. In case that’s not enough, before Disney bought Fox, Deadpool 3 was gonna be a road trip between Deadpool and Logan. Rashomon style. For real.
A new report from Deadline is suggest that the California production start on Netflix’s $200+ million budgeted spy flick The Gray Man from Avengers: Endgame directors The Russo Brothers might be seeing a production delay pushing the film’s start into early February or late January from it’s original planned start in mid-January due to positive COVID-19 tests. Netflix is hoping the expensive project could become a franchise on the level of James Bond.
The script was penned by the Russos with help from Marvel Studios alumni Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely.
The Gray Man is the debut novel by Mark Greaney, published in 2009 by Jove Books. It also is the first novel to feature the Gray Man, freelance assassin and former CIA operative Court Gentry. The action thriller will follow Gentry (Gosling) as he’s hunted across the globe by Lloyd Hansen (Evans), a former cohort at the CIA. The film is based on the first installment of the best-selling Gray Man book series.
It’s impressive cast already consists of Ryan Gosling (The Nice Guys, Drive, Blade Runner 2049), Chris Evans (Snowpiercer, Avengers franchise, Captain America franchise), Ana de Armas (No Time To Die, Knives Out, Blade Runner 2049), Jessica Henwick (The Matrix 4, Godzilla vs Kong, Game of Thrones, Star Wars: The Force Awakens), Wagner Moura (Narcos, Elysium), Dhanush, and young actress Julia Butters (Once Upon A Time In Hollywood).
The Ronin has also learned that 2nd unit director and veteran stunt coordinator Spiro Razatos is expected to join the spy movie’s production team. Razatos’ extensive credits include The Expendables, Fast Five, X-Men: First Class, Fast & Furious 6, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Furious 7, Captain America: Civil War, Kong: Skull Island, The Fate of The Furious, Venom, 21 Bridges, Bad Boys For Life, and F9.
The Russo Brothers are busy bees as they’ve wrapped on their Tom Holland (Spider-Man 3) crime drama Cherry and are already lining up their next film The Electric State for Universal Pictures starring Millie Bobby Brown (Stranger Things, Godzilla vs Kong). They’ve also been developing a live-action feature film based on the anime series Battle of The Planets and have considered returning to Marvel Studios to direct an event film such as Secret Wars.
A release date for The Gray Man has yet to be set by Netflix.
The Electric State has new directors after Deadline reports that Andy Muschietti (IT, The Flash) has stepped aside as the film’s potential director due to scheduling conflicts with his upcoming Flash movie starring Ezra Miller. However, Andy and sister Barbara Muschietti will stay on as producers.
Producers Joe Russo and Anthony Russo will instead take up the role of directors on the sci-fi film that has been picked-up by Universal Pictures. The pair are best known for the directing a bunch of films for Marvel Studios such as the highest-grossing film Avengers: Endgame.
Adapting the graphic novel from Simon Stalenhag into a feature film script will be Marvel screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, who are also working with the directing duo’s massive Netflix film The Gray Man.
Set in an alternative future, it tells the story of a teenage girl (Millie Bobby Brown) who realizes that a strange but sweet robot who comes to her has actually been sent by her missing brother. She and the robot set out to find the brother in an imaginative world of humans mixing with all manner of robots, uncovering a grand conspiracy in the process.
Looking at the artwork from the graphic novel it’ll certainly have a unique visual style.
It’s unclear when The Electric State will begin shooting given that the Russo Brothers begin shooting The Gray Man next month in Long Beach, California and Millie is busy with the fourth season of Stranger Things.
Hot off making The Matrix 4 in Germany, actress Jessica Henwick has landed a role in The Gray Man, a massive $200+ million budgeted spy action film directed by The Russo Brothers for Netflix.
The news coming from Deadline, who also mention that Wagner Moura (Narcos, Elysium), Dhanush, and Once Upon A Time In Hollywood breakout Julia Butters will be joining the cast as well. The high-profile project already has actors such as Ryan Gosling (Drive, Blade Runner 2049), Chris Evans (Snowpiercer, Captain America: The Winter Soldier), and Ana de Armas (Knives Out, No Time To Die) locked-in for lead roles.
Henwick is no stranger to genre projects with credit that include Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Game of Thrones, Marvel’s Iron Fist, Godzilla vs Kong, and 20th Century’s recent sci-fi horror flick Underwater. Jessica recently revealed while working alongside Keanu Reeves for the new Matrix film that she has been lobbying to join the John Wick franchise as Jessica Wick.
It’s script was penned by The Russo Brothers with a polish by fellow Marvel alumni Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely.
The Gray Man is the debut novel by Mark Greaney, published in 2009 by Jove Books. It also is the first novel to feature the Gray Man, freelance assassin and former CIA operative Court Gentry. The action thriller will follow Gentry (Gosling) as he’s hunted across the globe by Lloyd Hansen (Evans), a former cohort at the CIA. The film is based on the first installment of the best-selling Gray Man book series.
The Russo Brothers are coming off massive success with Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame becoming the highest-grossing film to ever be released and will follow it up next year with their heist drama Cherry starring Spider-Man 3 actor Tom Holland.
Filming was said to begin next month in Los Angeles, we’ll see if that sticks.
The Gray Man is reportedly the most expensive feature film made by Netflix.
Netflix is slowly ramping-up the scale of it’s film productions and that includes spending more on the budgets. It’s been reported that their upcoming spy thriller The Gray Man from Avengers: Endgame directors Joe and Anthony Russo will cost the streamer over $200 million making it their most expensive feature film to date.
Deadline now reports a rather large casting addition to the film as actress Ana de Armas will reunite with her Blade Runner 2049 co-star Ryan Glosing. Ana has been gathering up a lot of high-profile film projects recently with the aforementioned Blade Runner sequel from Denis Villeneuve, Rian Johnson’s whodunit Knives Out, and the upcoming James Bond movie No Time To Die.
It’s script was penned by The Russo Brothers with a polish by fellow Marvel alumni Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely.
The Gray Man is the debut novel by Mark Greaney, published in 2009 by Jove Books. It also is the first novel to feature the Gray Man, freelance assassin and former CIA operative Court Gentry. The action thriller will follow Gentry (Gosling) as he’s hunted across the globe by Lloyd Hansen (Evans), a former cohort at the CIA. The film is based on the first installment of the best-selling Gray Man book series.
Filming was once said to begin shooting next month in Los Angeles, California.
While we’re still waiting on an official announcement concerning the fate of Deadpool 3 at Marvel Studios, Cabble actor Josh Brolin spoke to cinematographer Roger Deakins on his podcast Team Deakins (spotted by The Playlist) about the differences between working on Deadpool 2 in juxtapose to working with Marvel/The Russo Brothers on Avengers Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.
BROLIN: “Deadpool was hard. Even though it was funny, it was harder. That was more of a business transaction, it was more, ‘We need to make this like this,’ which I didn’t feel that way with Avengers.”
“[The Russo Brothers] would constantly go back and reference Scarface or Dog Day Afternoon. Whether or not it was a manipulation, they knew what to throw out there to bring it back into something inspired.”
Josh’s comments here are terribly off-base as the Deadpool sequel underwent specific reshoots because producers/studio felt certain scenes didn’t test well and it’s possible that set had less of a creative environment than with The Russo Brothers.
There have been rumblings of Marvel considering a return for Brolin’s Thanos but that remains only rumor at this point. It’ll be interesting if they do end up moving forward with new Deadpool movies that if they’ll keep Brolin in the Nathan Summers aka Cable role as the only official carry-over from the Fox era is Ryan Reynolds as Wade Wilson.
Before the merger, the plan at 20th Century was to tackle an X-Force movie from writer/director Drew Goddard before a third solo installment.
Ryan confirmed back in December 2019 that Deadpool 3 was indeed in development at Marvel Studios but we really haven’t a solid update since.
Russo Brothers Tease ‘Secret Wars’ Could Be Bigger Than ‘The Infinity Saga’
The Bro Bible was able to speak with The Russo Brothers about what could coax them to return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, such as with another massive event like Secret Wars. Something they have teased in the past they would be interested in tackling while on the press tour for Avengers: Endgame.
JOE RUSSO: “You know, I read that when I was 10 or 11, and it was the scale of getting all of the heroes together. It was one of the first major books to do that — that was really event-storytelling to me at its finest. And what happens when you put all of those personalities together. I also like the idea of villains having to team up with heroes. Anth and I like complicated relationships between heroes and villains, we like villains who believe they’re heroes in their own stories, so it’s all sort of built into this notion of Secret Wars. To execute something on the scale of Infinity War was directly related to the dream of Secret Wars, which is even larger in scale.”
ANTHONY RUSSO: “It would be the biggest movie you could possibly imagine, so that’s what really excites us about the story — the ambition of it is even bigger than the ambition of the Infinity Saga.”
It has yet to be made official that the Russo Brothers are even coming back and Secret Wars isn’t one of the announced projects in development, so it’s hard to say if the pair will get their chance to make it anytime soon. Marvel is already busy trying to finish Phase 4 projects and getting other things ready like their Blade, X-Men, and Fantastic Four reboots.
‘Logan’ Actress Dafne Keen Open To Reprising X-23 In The MCU
When asked by Comic Book if Dafne Keen would like to reprise the role of Laura aka X-23 in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Logan actress replied “definitely”.
At one point, James Mangold had been mulling over developing a solo spinoff film focusing on Dafne’s Laura before 20th Century Fox folded into Disney with the merger.
I think the likelihood of Keen returning is extremely slim just like Famke Janssen reprising the Jean Grey role in the MCU as everything points towards Marvel giving the main franchise a hard-reboot. However, there is a shot that Keen could reprise the X-23 role in something more mature like Deadpool 3 or X-Force.
Keen is currently 15 and would be around 19-20 when Marvel is expected to relaunch their version of the X-Men.
Tom Holland Suggests ‘Spider-Man 3’ Could Wrap Filming In February 2021
Actor Tom Holland has begun filming Uncharted in Germany and a quote was making the rounds from a family interview on Patreon (spotted by MCU Direct) where he hoped to have completed production on Spider-Man 3 by February 2021.
However, he may have either misspoke or is potentially going by outdated studio information concerning the film’s production schedule. Considering that Spider-Man 3 is expected to shoot in places like Atlanta, New York City, and Los Angeles it is increasingly unlikely that will happen anytime soon given the state of COVID-19 in the United States alongside Uncharted‘s shoot just starting. that they’ll be able to begin in the fall.
Marvel Studios Still Seeking An Actress To Play ‘Hawkeye’s Kate Bishop Or Will They Land On Hailee Steinfeld?
After recent news from the Hollywood Reporter that Marvel Studios has hired three directors for their upcoming Hawkeye series starring Jeremy Renner, there still seems to be a search to find an actress to play Barton’s protege Kate Bishop.
Oscar-nominee Hailee Steinfeld (Bumblebee, Edge of Seventeen, True Grit) had been previously linked for talks by Variety and this is what The Hollywood Reporter had to say recently in their report about Hailee’s involvement with the Disney+ series.
One of the arcs of the series is Barton’s mentoring of a new generation of archer, Kate Bishop. Hailee Steinfeld was previously in negotiations for the part but it is unclear if her deal has closed. Marvel had no comment.
If Hailee ultimately doesn’t land the role it could be due to her contract with Apple TV+ for the drama series Dickinson.
Comic Book Artist Rob Liefeld Hopeful For A ‘Cable’ Movie
While speaking with Collider, comic book artist Rob Liefeld and co-creator of X-Men characters such as Deadpool and Cable, revealed he’s still very much interested in seeing a Cable movie coming together in the future.
LIEFELD: “Cable should have his own movie series. He can exist independent of Deadpool in a heartbeat. He has for years. If Deadpool’s been in like 330 comics, Cable’s been in about 520. Yes, I’ve counted…. In between Deadpool 2 wrapping and opening, I got really close with Josh. And he was very excited about exploring Cable in the subsequent sequels. The X-Force standalone movie that was, in his own words, Cable-centric.”
Rob has been extremely vocal over the years about Nathan Summers aka Cable being able to handle his own film franchise.
While Marvel Studios is seemingly set to have Ryan Reynolds carry-overs from the Fox films as Wade Wilson aka Deadpool, it remains to be seen if Josh Brolin will reprise the Cable role in future films. Ryan had confirmed back in December that Deadpool 3 is in actively development at Marvel Studios after moving from 20th Century after the merger.
Deadline reports that the Russo Brothers have chosen their next directorial effort after tackling the bank robbery film Cherry starring Tom Holland.
The Avengers: Endgame directors will tackle The Gray Man for Netflix, a spy film with a budget reportedly over $200 million making it the most expensive film at the streaming service to date. Adding that heavy-hitters Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans have been set to take the lead roles.
AGBO will also produce the action flick.
The action thriller is a deadly duel between killers as Court Gentry (Gosling) is hunted across the globe by Lloyd Hansen (Evans), a former cohort of Gentry’s at the CIA.
The script based on the Mark Greaney novel was penned by Joe Russo with some rewrites from Captain America franchise writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely.
To those who lurk in the shadows, he’s known as the Gray Man. He is a legend in the covert realm, moving silently from job to job, accomplishing the impossible and then fading away. And he always hits his target. Always. But there are forces more lethal than Gentry in the world. Forces like money. And power. And there are men who hold these as the only currency worth fighting for. And in their eyes, Gentry has just outlived his usefulness.
But Court Gentry is going to prove that, for him, there’s no gray area between killing for a living and killing to stay alive…
They’re hoping to begin filming next January in Los Angeles, California and various international locations yet to be determined. However, COVID-19 could cause issues for the project and we’ll be interested to see if they stick to shooting the film in the United States.
The project seems to be Netflix trying it’s best to wiggle-out of the wave of original films that look extremely generic despite their hefty budgets. Hiring the directors of the most successful film at the box office might payoff.
Also, there are nine novels in The Gray Man series which would allow Netflix/AGBO to turn the project into a franchise.
Ryan Gosling is attached for Universal’s Wolfman reboot from writer/director Leigh Whannell.
Tom Holland Teases That ‘Uncharted’ Will Begin Shooting Soon In Germany
Fans have been guessing about what Sony Pictures would do about Uncharted and Spider-Man 3 as their productions would now conflict with each other. The obvious thing was that Uncharted would begin shooting first because it was ready to begin in Germany back in March but filming was paused to the Coronavirus pandemic.
Some fans had made giant leaps with theories that Sony would just kill/delay Uncharted (after multiple production woes and hiccups over the years) and push forward with Spider-Man 3 instead. As we’ve been saying for months Uncharted is the priority at the moment and this has been cemented by Tom Holland.
Recent Instagram posts from Tom Holland suggest he’s about to begin shooting Uncharted in Germany very soon after taking a COVID-19 test, getting his hair done to play Nathan Drake and showing off how ripped he got to work with his Uncharted co-star Mark Wahlberg.
This would give the impression that he’ll be too busy over the next couple of months for Spider-Man 3 to begin production in September as previously rumored.
In normal times, Uncharted might have been able to complete it’s production within a range of 3-4 months, however, with the new COVID-19 precautions this would likely extend the filming a couple of months. That’s if people don’t get sick and they have to pause for a couple of weeks.
I think it’s extremely unlikely that Spider-Man 3 either is ready to shoot this September in Atlanta and Sony/Marvel will simply push that production into 2021 then bumping that November 5th, 2021 release to sometime in 2022.
‘Doctor Strange 2’ Still Expected To Shoot Primarily At Longcross Studios
Speaking of Phase Four films that have seen their productions delayed in 2020, I have an update as it looks like Marvel still plans to film Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness at Longcross Studios in Surrey, England. A major filming location I had previously confirmed over at HN Entertainment.
Not anything crazy but, interestingly, they’ve been sticking to that stage space instead of considering other places. Longcross is the same stage facility where the original film shot and director Sam Raimi shot his Wizard of Oz prequel for Disney titled Oz, The Great & Powerful.
It’s a little unclear when they’ll begin shooting since it’s unknown how much set construction or prep has been taking place since the United Kingdom has been in lockdown. We also won’t know if they’ll be able to meet their 2021 release date until Marvel makes it known when they’ll be able to start filming.
I had also reported that they were planning on filming the sequel in New York City and Norway, but it remains to be seen if they’ll be doing any international filming anytime soon.
We shouldn’t be surprised if Doctor Strange 2 like Spider-Man 3 is delayed into 2021. However, Spider-Man 3 is a slightly different case as their lead is shooting another large studio film first.
Then again, we have little idea how much set construction and prep has been underway on either of the MCU sequels during the pandemic.
‘Moonlight’s Janelle Monae Wants To Play Storm In ‘Black Panther 2’
We’ve been all been excited to see who will ultimately play the rebooted version of the X-Men in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and yet another actress has thrown their hand in the ring to play aka Storm.
Moonlight actress and singer Janelle Monae spoke to Empire recently and revealed she’d very much like to play Ororo Munroe aka Storm in the Black Panther sequel. Bringing it up to cast members when they were hanging out in Atlanta.
MONAE: “I definitely have thrown it out there. One of my dreams has always been to play Storm. I don’t know if she comes in Black Panther, but it would be a dream to have her in it. I don’t know where they are with that. A lot of women have played Storm and they’ve done an exceptional job, and I would love to be in that line of artists and get to do Storm justice.”
T’Challa and Ororo in the comics do become romantically involved leading to marriage and it would be an organic way to introduce her into the MCU given that her mother N’Dare (a tribal princess) is from Kenya. Ororo potentially being fellow royalty wouldn’t be a stretch.
We still don’t know where Black Panther 2 is in the development stage other than Ryan Coogler is writing the script. While there have been rumblings of Spider-Man‘s Kraven The Hunter, Namor, and Fantastic Four‘s Doctor Doom appearing in the film nothing has been announced or confirmed.
‘The Mandalorian’s Giancarlo Esposito Says He’s Keen For Marvel Studios Role Next
Janelle isn’t the only actor seemingly gunning for a Marvel role. Veteran film and television actor Giancarlo Esposito (Do The Right Thing, The Mandalorian) briefly mentioned to Entertainment Tonight that he’d like to work with Marvel Studios at some point.
ESPOSITO: “Well there’s been all these rumors about being with Marvel, I want to work with those guys. I put it out there all the time. I haven’t created any of those rumors, but I worked years ago with Louis D’Esposito, who is one of the guys at Marvel, back when he was doing Cotton Club and I was doing Cotton Club, he was the [1st assistant director].”
“What they do is fantastic, and I want to do something enduring with them. I think the Marvel world would be, likely, the next step for me.”
This comes after a year ago there were rumblings the Breaking Bad actor was wanted for a role, however, that was neither announced nor confirmed.
Where he could land role-wise is unknown despite the fan suggestions for Norman Osborn and Magneto. I personally think he’d be excellent as a hero like Norrin Radd aka Silver Surfer since Adam McKay was trying to get a feature film together over at Marvel last year.
Charlize Theron Admits She Has Never Been In Talks With Marvel For Roles
While speaking with Variety, Oscar-winning actress Charlize Theron (Atomic Blonde, Mad Max: Fury Road) has revealed that despite rumors over the years she has ultimately never spoken with Marvel Studios about various roles.
THERON: “I swear to God. I’ve never gotten anything. No, I’m not lying to you. But that’s okay. You know what? I am paving my own way. I’m creating my own opportunities. So it’s alright.”
This doesn’t mean Charlize will never meet with Marvel in the future but it sounds like it hasn’t happened up to this point.
Russo Brothers Support Anthony Mackie’s Comments On Lack of Diversity Behind The Scenes At Marvel Studios
After Anthony Mackie pointed out not too long ago that the people behind the scenes of Marvel Studios movies are mostly white and not as diverse as it could be. He is getting some support from directors The Russo Brothers while asked about it by Movie Maker.
JOE RUSSO: “I think we can always all do better at diversity, constantly in this business, and in every facet of every industry — so he’s not wrong at all. I think that we all have to work harder to keep endorsing and supporting diversity on both sides of the camera.”
Marvel Studios Artist Charlie Wen Shares Unofficial ‘Shang-Chi’ Artwork
A brief post made by Marvel Studios concept artist Charlie Wen on his Instagram shows us some interesting but unofficial artwork featuring Simu Liu as Shang-Chi.
THE RONIN 