Netflix is looking for its Bond. He releases the film The Gray Man with Gosling, it was filmed in Prague
I call myself Six because the number 007 has already been taken, jokes the character played by Ryan Gosling in the new Netflix movie called The Gray Man. The big-budget action film, which was largely shot in Prague, is being released by the video library this Friday. And he hopes that it will start a spy saga comparable to the adventures of James Bond.
Gosling plays an agent nicknamed Sierra Six. The CIA recruited her from prison to participate in a top secret assassination unit. But now the tables have turned and the hero is being chased by another assassin.
“I’ve always wanted to make an action movie,” says the 41-year-old Canadian Gosling from the movie Drive, the musical La La Land or the sci-fi Blade Runner 2049. “First of all, I’m a guy who liked action movies. It’s because of them that I became interested in cinema in the first place . It just took me a while to play in one myself,” he adds.
The Gray Man is based on the book bestseller of the same name by Mark Greaney from 2009, which was published in the Czech translation by Ivan Ryčovský last year by the publishing house Kalibr under the title The Gray Man. The current adaptation was directed by the brothers Joe and Anthony Russo, signed under the last two Marvel Avengers comics.
He praises the cooperation with a paid video library. The Gray Man was filmed in seven countries around the world, from Azerbaijan to Croatia and the Czechia to France. Already in the trailer, you can see how Gosling, with a bloodied face, takes part in a shootout in Prague’s Jan Palach Square, which culminates in a hit from a rocket launcher. In the next scene, gunmen shoot tram number 11 heading to Vozovna Bohnice with a machine gun. Yet another action scene takes place in front of the Palladium department store on náměstí Republiky.
“We were very active with this film. It’s hard to shoot action scenes. It’s also expensive. But Netflix us in our ambition,” sums up Anthony Russo.
The film contains nine long action scenes, including an extensive shootout in Prague. “It was a real trial by fire for being my first action film,” notes Ryan Gosling.
The Gray Man will be on Netflix from July 22nd. | Video: Netflix
His nemesis was played by the same age Chris Evans, known as Captain America from the Marvel series. In the novel, he plays hitman Lloyd Hansen, who was fired by the CIA because he used too straightforward methods.
“He’s just himself and he’s not ashamed of it,” Evans describes his character. “Most of us behave the way I think we should behave. Lloyd is not bothered by these problems,” he adds.
The Gray Mana began screening in select US theaters last week, and will appear on Netflix this Friday. They have received a mixed reception from critics so far. On the website Rottentomatoes.comwhich shares reviews from the Anglo-American world, has an average score of only 52 percent, the audience gave it 90 percent.
For example, the British newspaper Guardian he wrote, that the thriller runs for two passing hours, during which it alternates crazy action scenes in exotic locations, but it doesn’t offer much more than that. Vanity Fair magazine denotes The Gray Man for “a big dumb action movie”, in which Ryan Gosling thoroughly enjoyed everything expected of an action hero, while the Russo brothers filmed as if they were working on another Marvel movie. It’s fun, but not nearly as cool and spectacular as the creators imagined, notes Vanity Fair.
The New York Times is more conciliatory. Although in some action scenes, according to him, the creators overdo it with tricks, as if they do not trust Gosling’s acting abilities, the whole is far from perfect, with the passing minutes the impression of The Gray Man improves.
The Russo brothers are hoping that audiences will embrace the film so that a sequel can be made. “Whether it continues the story of the first Gray Man or takes place earlier, we have a lot of options to go in this world,” adds Anthony Russo.
The film also stars Ana de Armas, Regé-Jean Page, Wagner Moura or thirteen-year-old Julia Butters, who drew attention to her role as child actress Trudi Frazer in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. With a budget of around 200 million dollars, equivalent to 4.8 billion crowns, The Gray Man is historically the most expensive work of Netflix.
Last summer, the crew filmed in Prague’s Republiky Square, Dvořák’s embankment or Dukelských hrdinů Street. Cameramen raced down the road, burning police cars flew through the air, and actors fired machine guns. Later, the crew built a plot of land near the National Museum, where they also filmed from a drone. Part of the traffic around Čechova Most, Rudolfinum and Pařížská Street was closed because of the filmmakers. Trams and buses did not pass by the law school.
The scenes that grew up in front of Prague’s Rudolfinum were liked by the pirate mayor of Prague, Zdenek Hřib. “I’m really excited about them. We’re looking into whether it would be possible to keep them in place for at least a little while after filming as a diversion before the planned renovation of the entire space.” he wrote on Facebook.