Deadline is reporting that Netflix's adaptation of the Mark Greaney novel series The Gray Man, which will be directed by Joe and Anthony Russo, has set a record-breaking budget upwards of $200 million. Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans are attached to co-star in the film, which will be the Russo brothers' first major blockbuster since 2018's Avengers Endgame. The intention, Deadline says, is to "create a new franchise with a James Bond-level of scale."

　　The source material should offer plenty to tee that up, and there's already a proven track record in Greaney. He co-authored Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan novels, and after Clancy's death in 2013, he took over as the sole author for the series. Jack Ryan, before being adapted for an Amazon Prime series in 2018 starring John Krasinski (The Office), has had his adventures in books turned into movies, TV shows, and video games dating back to 1987's Patriot Games, starring Harrison Ford.

　　Like the Gray Man novels, the movie will be an action-thriller duel "between killers as Gentry (Gosling) is hunted across the globe by Lloyd Hansen (Evans), a former cohort of Gentry's at the CIA." The expectation is that Gosling will return to play Gentry in further, though unannounced, entries in an adapted series.

　　Anthony Russo said, "The movie is a real mano a mano between those two great actors, who represent two different versions of the CIA, in what it can be, and what it can do. For those who were fans of Captain America: Winter Soldier, this is us moving into that territory in more of a real world setting. That’s what this movie really means for us."

　　Added Joe Russo: "We have all committed to the first movie and that’s got to be great to get us to the second movie."

　　Production is slated to hopefully start in the late fall 2020 or early spring 2021, depending on how the situation with COVID plays out after the summer.

　　David Wolinsky on Google+