The Gray Man fast approaches our Netflix queues, and directors the Russo brothers have promised a high-flying caper at breakneck speed, held together by a cast that includes Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans, and Ana de Armas.
The film stars Gosling and Evans opposite each other as compromised mercenary Court Gentry and treacherous assassin Lloyd Hansen, respectively, as the latter goes on a worldwide manhunt for Court after the mercenary uncovers some dark secrets about the CIA.
With a production budget of over $200 million, it’s the most expensive film ever made by Netflix, and apparently, the Russo brothers are taking full advantage of it in the form of filmmaking technology. In an interview with ComicBook, Anthony Russo mused about the joy the brothers get out of using new tech, and how one in particular, a speed drone, helped to create mesmerizing scenes in the upcoming film.
Joe and I have always been really fed by technology. We like finding new toys because it allows us to create experiences we haven’t seen before. Certainly, in this movie, we’ve used a number of things like the speed drone was not… When we sort of were able to put it to use, it hadn’t been used much. And I think it creates a sort of a really stunning, exciting effect in the movie. A lot of visual effect work that we do is innovative and it’s innovative in ways that you may not notice.
He would go on to note that the duo’s fixation on technology has been a running practice for many of their films, notably in the two Avengers films they helmed.
We are working with various technologies that can capture actors’ performances and facial performances and map them onto either stunt performers, bodies, or Digi-doubles in a way that people haven’t seen before. It’s kind of all based on the performance capture technology that we innovated with on the character of Thanos, in terms of how we worked with Josh Brolin. In terms of capturing and mapping his performance as a person onto a fictional character. So yeah, technology has always been really important to us.
The Gray Man will have a limited theatrical release on July 15 before landing on Netflix on July 22.
