While cinemas remain shuttered throughout the Czech Republic in order to curb the spread of COVID-19, the country has not closed the revolving door to international productions. This spring, the Czech capital will welcome the film crew of The Gray Man, reportedly Netflix’s most expensive production to date, with a budget of $200 million. Principal photography started earlier this month in Los Angeles. Joe and Anthony Russo, whose previous work includes the Marvel movies Avengers: Endgame and Avengers: Infinity War, are helming the spy action film that stars Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans in the leading roles.

In the feature, based on the 2009 book of the same name by Mark Greaney, Gosling plays Court Gentry, a former CIA operative-turned-assassin, while Evans portrays Lloyd Hansen, who heads off in pursuit of him. Joe Russo co-wrote the script with Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, who wrote Avengers: Endgame and Avengers: Infinity War along with the Captain America movies. “The intention is for it to be competitive with any theatrical release, and the ability to do so with Gosling and Evans is a dream come true for us. The idea is to create a franchise and build up a whole universe, with Ryan at the centre of it. We have all committed to the first movie, and that’s got to be great to get us to the second movie. These are master assassins, and Gosling’s character gets burned by the CIA, while Evans’ character has to hunt him down. We have a great working relationship with Netflix, and we go back almost 20 years with Scott Stuber. We formed the firm AGBO to be an agnostic storytelling company, where we figure out the best platform,” said Joe Russo, according to the website of production house Stillking Films.

The cast of The Gray Man includes Regé-Jean Page, Ana de Armas, Wagner Moura, Billy Bob Thornton, Jessica Henwick, Julia Butters and Callan Mulvey. It is also expected to open a brand-new franchise for Netflix.

Prague-based company Stillking Films will be co-producing Netflix’s largest venture. The company has experience with big-budget international projects and is currently handling the service production for the Lionsgate film White Bird: A Wonder Story, which is shooting right now in the Czech Republic with Gillian Anderson and Helen Mirren among the cast. Still more international crews are presently continuing to shoot in the Czech Republic, including for Netflix’s All Quiet on the Western Front [+lee también:
crítica
tráiler
entrevista: Edward Berger
ficha de la película] –the adaptation of the World War I literary classic–, the third season of the Amazon Prime action-drama Hanna and Amazon’s epic fantasy The Wheel of Time (see the news). Plus, another Amazon fantasy series, Carnival Row, is expected to return to the Czech Republic, as the third season has now been greenlit (the series holds the current record for incurring the highest amount of eligible production costs, at almost €68.5 million – see the news).