Dhanush, the Tamil actor, has joined the cast of The Russo Brother’s upcoming Netflix film The Gray Man, along with Chris Evans, Ryan Gosling and Ana de Armas. Netflix announced the ensemble cast on Thursday.
Dhanush is the only Indian actor to have joined the cast of the action thriller. The film also features Jessica Henwick, Wagner Moura, and Julia Butters.The Gray Man marks Dhanush’s second international film, after the 2018 French adventure comedy The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir directed by Ken Scott.
THE GRAY MAN cast just got even better.
Jessica Henwick, Wagner Moura, Dhanush, and Julia Butters will join Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans, and Ana de Armas in the upcoming action thriller from directors Anthony and Joe Russo. pic.twitter.com/SJcz8erjGm
— NetflixFilm (@NetflixFilm) December 17, 2020
Dhanush also made the announcement on Twitter on Friday and wrote that he was elated to join the project.
@netflix @netflixindia @russo_brothers @ryangosling @chrisevans @preena621 pic.twitter.com/LK5u5ZnUG0
— Dhanush (@dhanushkraja) December 18, 2020
Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo (Avengers: Endgame, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War), the Netflix original is a crime thriller based on the debut novel in American author Mark Greaney’s The Gray Man series. The novel, published in 2009 and titled The Gray Man, revolves around a former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operative and freelance assassin Court Gentry. In the film adaptation, the freelance assasin will be played by Gosling, who is being hunted down a former cohort at the CIA, Lloyd Hansen, played by Evans, Deadline reported. The Gray Man is expected to be “the biggest-budget film in Netflix’s history on the feature side”.
The film’s script has been written by the Russo Brothers, along with Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely.
Besides directing and scriptwriting, the Russo Brothers will also co-produce the film with Mike Larocca under their production banner, AGBO, along with Joe Roth, Jeff Kirschenbaum and Chris Castaldi under their banner of Roth Kirschenbaum Films.
According to a Deadline report, the film will be shot in Los Angeles in January 2021, followed by a few international locations. No official announcement has been made on the release date yet.
The Gray Man marks the Russo Brothers’ first big-budget film since superhero action film Avengers: Endgame, that released in 2019 and set an all-time global box-office record. Incidentally, the film’s promotion was kickstarted in India, with Joe Russo visiting India to release a special theme song composed by AR Rahman. Russo also said that he chose India as their first stop for their film’s press tour because he was “overwhelmed” with “the incredible response to Infinity War” (the 2018 American superhero film Avengers: Infinity War).
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This is not the first venture of the Russo Brothers to star an Indian actor. Extraction, a Netflix original action thriller film co-produced by Anthony and Joe Russo and written by Joe Russo, starred Indian actors Randeep Hooda, Pankaj Tripathi, Priyanshu Painyuli, and Rudhraksh Jaiswal alongside Chris Hemsworth. The film that has made its way into Google’s list of top 10 most trending movies in 2020. The film was shot in Ahmedabad and Mumbai in November 2018.
The Russo Brothers have also collaborated with Indian director duo Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK (The Family Man) for an upcoming drama series titled Citadel, starring Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Richard Madden in the lead.