The directors of “Grey Man” Joe and Anthony Russo suspect that after the filming of “Grey Man” they will no longer be allowed in Prague. The directors, known colloquially as the Russo brothers, shot and produced the upcoming action thriller “The Gray Man”, co-written by Joe Russo. The star cast of the film includes Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas and Billy Bob Thornton. The story tells about a CIA mercenary who accidentally reveals dark secrets inside the agency, and then flees when his former colleague puts a bounty on his head and arranges an international manhunt.
The Russo brothers are not new to the action genre. They became famous for their work in the MCU, having shot a whopping four major franchise films: “Captain America: The Winter Soldier”, “Captain America: Civil War”, “Avengers: Infinity War” and “Avengers: The Finale”. The Russo brothers collaborated with Evans again in the film “The Grey Man”, this time outside of Marvel’s area of responsibility, and the filmmakers expressed hope that this would become a new franchise in the action genre.
Now the Russo brothers delve into the process of creating the film’s battle scenes and explain why they believe that they are unlikely to be invited to Prague in the near future. At a press conference attended by SR, the Russo brothers explain that when they go to a particular city to shoot their big movies, they often have to block roads or busy areas. Sometimes they are welcomed in the specified city with open arms. For the filming of The Grey Man, they had to “block the motorway for two weeks,” and, according to them, the city of Prague was unhappy. Watch the full exchange between Joe and Anthony Russo below:
Joe Russo: It’s interesting, when you go to the city — we did it with the Winter Soldier — we block the freeway. We returned to Cleveland, our hometown, to shoot the film, and everyone was very happy. And then we closed the freeway for two weeks and…
Anthony Russo: I wanted to say they weren’t that happy.
Joe Russo: And then they weren’t happy. It was very short. I don’t think we will be able to return to Prague or Cleveland, but we are very grateful that we were able to shoot on location.
As the Russo brothers tell us, shooting a major film in the city, of course, causes great excitement among local residents. The flip side of this coin, obviously, is that shooting scenes of a grand chase and a sequence of actions shot on location means that it becomes something like traffic. I hope, however, that the destruction is worth it, and the action scenes of the “Gray Man” will pay off for being filmed on the spot.
There are reviews of “The Gray Man”, and they are not as enthusiastic as the Russo brothers may have been used to, and critics are clearly ambivalent about the Netflix film. While many praise the central performances of Gosling and Evans, others wonder whether attempts to return to the tone of the 80s with silly witticisms and storylines are effective. In the sea of popular action movies this year, including Top Gun: Maverick and Jurassic World Dominion, it will be interesting to see how the Gray Man is doing. Viewers will appreciate the plot of “Grey Man” and episodes of Prague action movies when “Grey Man” is released on Netflix at the end of July.
