Filming has begun on Netflix’s The Gray Man in Los Angeles this month, with production expected to move to European locations including those in Prague and the Czech Republic later this spring, according to local sources.
Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, who previously directed four Marvel movies including Avengers: Endgame and Avengers: Infinity War, The Gray Man boasts a star-studded cast headlined by Chris Evans (Captain America) and Ryan Gosling (Drive).
The Gray Man is a Jason Bourne-esque globetrotting thriller about a former CIA operative who has become an assassin, and is tracked by his former handlers throughout Europe to save the daughters who don’t know he exists.
Gosling will star as Court Gentry, the former CIA operative, while Evans will play Lloyd Hansen, who leads the chase for him throughout Europe.
Regé-Jean Page (Bridgerton), Ana de Armas (Knives Out), Wagner Moura (Narcos), Alfre Woodard, and Billy Bob Thornton also feature among The Gray Man’s primary cast, with Jessica Henwick, Julia Butters, Callan Mulvey, and Dhanush in supporting roles.
The screenplay for The Gray Man has been written by Joe Russo along with Stephen McFeely and Christopher Markus, who both worked with the directors for their Marvel movies. The film is expected to be the first in a new franchise for Netflix.
At an estimated budget of $200 million, The Gray Man will be the most expensive original film that Netflix has produced to date. The budget for Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman officially ran Netflix $159 million.
Extraction, a Chris Hemsworth-starring film the Russo brothers wrote and produced for Netflix, cost an estimated $65 million; the director’s final two Marvel movies, Infinity War and Endgame, both ran Disney north of $300 million.
The Gray Man has just begun filming in Los Angeles, with the L.A. shoot expected to run through the end of April. Afterwards, the production will move to Europe, with scenes expected to shoot on location in Prague.
Potential shooting locations for The Gray Man in Prague and the Czech Republic are not yet known, as well as whether the ongoing COVID-19 situation in the country may disrupt plans for the production. As Prague is one of a number of European locations in the film, not all cast members may shoot in the Czech Republic.
“We have an incredible team and Netflix has been very supportive,” director Joe Russo told a CCXP panel last year.
“[The COVID-19 pandemic] hasn’t impacted our location shooting. This is a big, global spy thriller […] It’s gonna hit a lot of different locations, and we’re still gonna film in those locations. So we’re excited about that because it’s really important to the storytelling that we visit these different locations.”
Joe Russo is no stranger to Prague. Interviewed ahead of the opening of his L.A. restaurant Simone in 2019, Russo cited classic Prague pub U Fleků as an influence.
The Prague venue “serves pork chops on the back patio for, like, a dollar and the barkeep walks around with trays filled with traditional Czech liquor,” he said at the time.
Lead photos: Ryan Gosling at the 2018 premiere of First Man in Washington via Wikimedia / NASA/Aubrey Gemignani; Chris Evans at a 2014 press conference for Captain America: The Winter Soldier via Wikimedia / Elen Nivrae from Paris, France
