A newly released montage of footage presented by Netflix gives us our first look at Hollywood heavy hitters Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans in the upcoming spy thriller The Gray Man. Coming courtesy of Netflix on YouTube, the footage, while brief, shows off both Gosling and Evans alongside their stellar supporting cast, even teasing some of the action that will be on display when the movie hits the streaming giant later this year.
Based on the 2009 debut novel by Mark Greaney, The Gray Man has been adapted for Netflix by Avengers: Endgame directing duo The Russo Brothers, who have co-written the script alongside Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely. The Gray Man follows Academy Award nominee Ryan Gosling as a former CIA operative turned freelance assassin named Court Gentry, also known as the titular Gray Man. Gentry soon finds himself on the sharp end of a bullet, as he hunted by his former CIA cohort Lloyd Hansen, played by Marvel star Chris Evans.
Watching these two actors go head-to-head will be by far the biggest draw to The Gray Man, with this first footage giving us just a glimpse of the glorious mano a mano style verbal (and later physical) barbs traded between the pair. While Gosling looks his usual leading man self, with some additional facial hair, Chris Evans could not look more different. Sporting a mustache alongside the kind of haircut you could set your watch to, the Captain America star is clearly reveling in the opportunity to play the arrogant villain of the piece.
Alongside the A-list one-two punch of Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans, The Gray Man has amassed a stellar supporting cast including Knives Out star Ana de Armas, Bridgerton's Regé-Jean Page, Luke Cage star Alfre Woodard, Iron Fist's Jessica Henwick, and Hollywood icon Billy Bob Thornton. Following a series of delays to production, filming finally wrapped in July last year. The Gray Man marks Netflix’s most expensive movie ever made by the platform, with the movie given a production budget of $200 million.
The Gray Man Has Been Compared to Thriller Classic Heat
Director Joe Russo recently compared the prestige of The Gray Man to Michael Mann’s heist thriller classic, Heat. Starring Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, Russo is clearly planning to create a similar dynamic between his uber-talented leading men.
“It’s fantastic, it’s electric. It’s also been a long time since we’ve seen a movie like this,” Russo said. “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.”
The Gray Man is just one of several major projects due for release on Netflix in 2022, including The Adam Project, The Mother, Slumberland, Day Shift, and Knives Out 2.