Red Notice may have been toppling viewership records left, right and center on its way to becoming the most-watched original movie in Netflix history, but there’s another $200 million star-studded blockbuster on the way that stands a very good chance of stealing the crown away from Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds and Gal Gadot.
That would be the globetrotting espionage epic The Gray Man, which has Avengers: Endgame directors Joe and Anthony Russo helming a literary adaptation that boasts Chris Evans and Ryan Gosling in the two lead roles as a pair of former friends turned enemies, who pursue each other to the ends of the Earth.
Speaking to Variety at the red carpet premiere of Spider-Man: No Way Home, Joe Russo teased that Evans and Gosling’s interactions in The Gray Man are reminiscent of the intense showdown between Robert De Niro and Al Pacino in Michael Mann’s classic crime thriller Heat.
“It’s fantastic, it’s electric. It’s also been a long time since we’ve seen a movie like this. We have two big movie stars going against each other to the tradition of like De Niro and Pacino in Heat. This is an intense action film. Very, very entertaining performances from both actors, and they’re absolutely pitted against each other in the movie. And it’s a deliciously sociopathic turn for Chris Evans as the villain. He does [make a good sociopath], it’s quite entertaining. So I think it’s gonna be a lot of fun.”
Evans is betrayed CIA operative Court Gentry, who goes on the run in an effort to clear his name, with Gosling playing Lloyd Hansen, the agent sent to track him down and bring him to justice. Ana de Armas, Jessica Henwick Regé-Jean Page, Wagner Moura, Alfre Woodward and Billy Bob Thornton co-star in The Gray Man, which is shaping up to be massive.