DEADLINE – EXCLUSIVE: Fresh from an earnings report that saw it add 10 million subscribers during the pandemic, Netflix has just set its most financially ambitious feature film so far. Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans are set to star in The Gray Man, with AGBO’s Joe & Anthony Russo directing their first blockbuster since setting the all-time global box office record with Avengers: Endgame two years ago. The intention here is to create a new franchise with a James Bond level of scale and a budget upward of $200 million.

The Russos’ AGBO is producing, and the script was written by Joe Russo, with a polish by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, who scripted the Russo-directed Captain America and Avengers films and who are Co-Presidents of Story at AGBO. It is based on the 2009 Mark Greaney novel that introduced the Gray Man, a freelance assassin and former CIA operative named Court Gentry.

The film will be produced by AGBO’s Russo Brothers and Mike Larocca, along with Joe Roth and Jeff Kirschenbaum for Roth Kirschenbaum. They are eyeing a January start date in Los Angeles with international locations being finalized.

The action thriller is a deadly 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 Gray Man turned into a bestselling book series, and the expectation is that Gosling will continue in multiple installments. The project was developed years back at New Regency as a Brad Pitt/James Gray vehicle, but it stalled. The Russos quietly have been developing it for years.

“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,” Anthony Russo told Deadline. “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.”

Said Joe Russo on the film’s scale: “The intention is for it to be competitive with any theatrical, and the ability to do with with Gosling and Evans is a dream for us. The idea is to create a franchise and build out a whole universe, with Ryan at the center of it. We have all committed to the first movie, and that’s got to be great to get us to the second movie. These are master assassins, and Gosling’s characters gets burned by the CIA and Evans’ character has to hunt him down. We have a great working relationship with Netflix, and we go back almost 20 years with Scott Stuber. We formed AGBO to be an agnostic storytelling company, where we figure out the best platform. We think Netflix is the perfect place for this film.”

This is a lot of faith Netflix is placing on the Russo Brothers, but aside from the Avengers box office record, the AGBO-produced action film Extraction with Chris Hemsworth, Golshifteh Farahani and Randeep Hooda became the most watched Netflix original movie of all time. A sequel is in the works with Sam Hargrave returning as director and Joe Russo writing the script.

The Russo Brothers formed AGBO to be a platform-agnostic storytelling production venture, but if The Gray Man works, this will give them two franchises at Netflix, each based on original IP. They are back in business with Evans, who like Hemsworth graced the four Marvel movies, and they are working with Gosling for the first time.

CAA reps the Russo Brothers, Gosling and Evans, and the latter is managed by 3 Arts.

ESQUIRE – The artist formerly known as Captain America is found in seclusion at his rambling farmhouse, set back from the road on a couple of sylvan acres in the Boston suburbs, not far from his childhood home. It’s a warm, late-winter afternoon. The trees are bare. The sky is clear. Patches of melting snow cover the ground.

With his fortieth birthday on the horizon, Chris Evans seems to have undertaken a retreat, returning to familiar ground to regroup. The Marvel Cinematic Universe now behind him, the actor has the time, money, and wherewithal to pursue anything he wants.

All he has to do is figure out what.

Evans is sitting in an armchair by an unlit fireplace in an area off the kitchen, an informal sort of room you might call a den. The furnishings appear to be mid-century modern, a style often seen in Los Angeles, where he has a house in the Hollywood Hills. Evans is welcoming but not warm, broish in a manner that bespeaks form over content. In person he seems very much like the guy onscreen; his upper torso is sculpted in a way that suggests he’s still wearing his Avengers uniform under his green tartan flannel shirt. His ball cap has a shamrock on the front panel.

Evans’s mutt is snoozing at my feet, letting out the occasional fart. His name is Dodger, after Evans’s favorite character in the Disney movie Oliver & Company—the roguish mongrel who leads Fagin’s gang of orphans. The pair met in 2016 at a Savannah rescue shelter where Evans was filming a scene for the feel-good movie Gifted.

You would never know it from the spotless condition of the premises, but last night Evans hosted friends for karaoke. I ask him his favorite song choice. “You can’t go wrong with Billy Joel,” he says. (Coincidentally, it was Joel who voiced Dodger in the animated film.) His lifelong crew includes a cardiologist, an engineer, a computer guy. Like Evans, they’ve made good but stuck around, rooted in their home soil, die-hard fans of the Red Sox, and the changing seasons.

Evans’s latest acting project, Defending Jacob, is about to debut on Apple TV+. On the show, he plays an assistant district attorney in a small town who finds himself torn between his professional responsibilities and his love for his teenage son, who has been accused of a gruesome murder. As the episodes proceed, Evans’s character confronts his own secret past.

The limited series was shot in the Boston suburbs. “It felt like I had a regular nine-to-five job,” he says. “I’d sleep in my own bed; I’d see my family on weekends. A lot of times you have a bit of a nomadic lifestyle as an actor. You live out of suitcases and in cities you’re not familiar with. Doing Jacob made me feel like I was home but still doing what I love. It was incredibly comforting.” His real estate holdings notwithstanding, he considers this his home. He spends a lot of time with his brother, the actor Scott Evans (One Life to Live, Grace & Frankie); his younger sister, Shanna; and his older sister, Carly, and her children. He often calls his mom, Lisa, ten minutes before dinner to tell her he’s coming over to eat.

Read more at the source

VARIETY – Paramount has dated Chris Evans’ past-lives drama “Infinite” for Aug. 7, 2020.

The studio has also moved Eddie Murphy’s “Coming to America” sequel off that date and back four months to Dec. 18, 2020. That holiday date had been occupied by James Cameron’s “Avatar 2,” but Disney announced on Tuesday that the sequel was moving back a year.

Antoine Fuqua is directing “Infinite,” produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Mark Vahradian at Di Bonaventura Pictures, and John Zaozirny. John Lee Hancock and Ian Shorr are adapting D. Eric Maikranz’s novel “The Reincarnationist Papers,” which is centered on the Cognomina, a secret society of people who possess total recall of their past lives. A troubled young man haunted by memories of two past lives stumbles upon the centuries-old secret society.

Earlier this year, Paramount had set the Aug. 7, 2020, for its untitled sequel to the 1988 Murphy comedy “Coming to America.” The studio hired “Hustle & Flow” helmer Craig Brewer to direct the project.

The original movie was directed by John Landis, with Murphy playing a charming African prince who traveled to New York City to escape an arranged marriage. Arsenio Hall, James Earl Jones, Shari Headley and John Amos co-starred in “Coming to America,” which was a major hit, grossing nearly $300 million at the worldwide box office.

Brewer and Murphy recently worked together on “Dolemite Is My Name” for Netflix, about comedian Rudy Ray Moore.

Chris is featured on the cover of The Hollywood Reporter for the March 27th issue. Check out the amazing shoot in the gallery and I’ll add scans from the issue soon!

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER – Ahead of ‘Avengers: Endgame,’ the progressive Captain America actor and Twitter firebrand says he’s ready to retire his Marvel hero for directing gigs, a new Apple show and the fight against the “dumb s—” president: “I’d be disappointed in myself if I didn’t speak up.”

It’s a Friday afternoon in February, and the view from Chris Evans’ house in the Hollywood Hills consists mostly of fog. He bought this place for $3.2 million in 2013, back when he was two hit movies into his seven-film stint as Marvel Studios’ Captain America; there’s a Zen-ish garden inside the front gate, and a stone Buddha sits by the door. Evans banishes his dog, Dodger, to the guest room, shuts off the TV in the family room (CNN on mute), cracks a can of Modelo, and takes a seat on the couch. His arms are insane, as thick as thighs.

Evans has a movie coming out in a few months — an intimate little passion project called Avengers: Endgame (April 26). It’s the sequel to last year’s Avengers: Infinity War, which raked in $2 billion worldwide and ended with Thanos (Josh Brolin) disintegrating half of Earth’s population, including the still-bankable likes of Black Panther and Spider-Man. The moody trailers for Endgame are designed to reveal even less than usual, but it’s safe to assume that Captain America rallies Earth’s mightiest surviving heroes for a rematch with the mad god who finger-snapped their friends and loved ones into oblivion, which means this will be the first of the four Avengers movies to depict actual avenging.

Evans — who made $15 million for the past two Avengers films, up from $300,000 for his first stint as Captain America — has said he’s done playing the character after this. It’s been reported that he intends to retire from acting entirely. And yet the announcements of new work keep coming. He’s in Rian Johnson’s crowded-house murder mystery Knives Out, due in November. He’s playing the father of a teenager accused of murder in Apple’s forthcoming limited series Defending Jacob. He’s in talks to star in Antoine Fuqua’s Infinite as a presumably Chris Evans-ish guy who can recall his past lives. It’s a crowded dance card for a newly retired 37-year-old actor, and when I bring this up, Evans gets as annoyed as he’ll get all afternoon.

Read the rest of the interview at the source

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER – Chris Evans is plotting his post-Avengers future.

Evans is in talks to join the Antoine Fuqua thriller Immortal, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.

The Paramount film is an adaptation of the 2009 novel The Reincarnationist Papers, from author D. Eric Maikranz. The film adaptation is written by Ian Shorr, whose script centers on a group of near-immortal men and women who are reincarnated over the centuries and known as “the Infinite.” To defeat an evil mastermind who wants to destroy the planet, the group must rely on a man who suffers from schizophrenia and will have to learn that all his vivid dreams are actually memories from past lives, in order to defeat the villain.

Transformers producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura is producing with Mark Vahradian. John Zaozirny at Bellevue Productions is also producing. Rafi Crohn will executive produce.

Evans has spent much of the past decade years playing Captain America in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. April’s Avengers: Endgame is expected to be his last time to pick up the shield.

“Playing this role over the last 8 years has been an honor. To everyone in front of the camera, behind the camera, and in the audience, thank you for the memories! Eternally grateful,” Evans tweeted in October as Endgame wrapped.

In between his time in the MCU, Evans also made his directorial debut with 2014’s Before We Go, and starred in the post-apocalyptic film Snowpiercer and the 2017 drama Gifted.

Evans is repped by CAA.

DEADLINE – EXCLUSIVE: As one door seemingly closes, another looks to be opening. I understand from sources that Captain America star Chris Evans is joining Daniel Craig in Rian Johnson’s red-hot murder mystery movie Knives Out.

The casting bolsters the project’s status as one of the hottest in the works at the moment and follows MRC’s big money deal for it out of Toronto. As we previously broke, Star Wars: The Last Jedi director Johnson, who wrote the script and is producing with partner Ram Bergman, will make the movie before directing a new trilogy in the Star Wars universe.

Plot details on the film are largely being kept under wraps but the pic will likely shoot this year, meaning Craig will shoot it before Bond 25. It is understood to be a modern day murder mystery in the classic whodunit style.

The project is timely for Evans on the day that speculation is in overdrive about him hanging up his Captain America shield after playing the Marvel stalwart since 2011. Anthony and Joe Russo’s latest installment in the Avengers franchise will hit next year. The in-demand actor also has thriller The Red Sea Diving Resort coming up and he was set for Neill Blomkamp’s Greenland during Cannes. Knives Out is expected to be his next movie.

Evans is repped by CAA, 3 Arts and Meyer & Downs.

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER – The ‘Captain America’ star will return to television after filming the final ‘Avengers’ film.

Add Chris Evans to the list of feature film stars headed for television.

The Captain America star will topline and executive produce the crime drama Defending Jacob, which has landed a straight-to-series order at Apple.

Based on William Landay’s 2012 New York Times best-selling novel of the same name, the project — which is being billed as a limited series — revolves around Andy Barber, an assistant district attorney who investigates the slaying of a 14-year-old boy and discovers his teenage son is a suspect. The character-driven thriller will run for eight episodes.

Mark Bomback (the Planet of the Apes trilogy) created the TV take and will pen the script, exec produce and serve as showrunner. The drama hails from Paramount Television and Anonymous Content. Rosalie Swedlin and Adam Shulman will exec produce for Anonymous Content, while Oscar nominee Morten Tyldum (The Imitation Game, TV’s Counterpart, Jack Ryan) will exec produce and direct the series.

Defending Jacob marks Evans’ first TV role in nearly two decades. His only other series regular role was on the Fox dramedy Opposite Sex, which ran for one season (eight episodes) in the summer of 2000. The actor next will reprise his role as Captain America in Marvel’s final Avengers feature, which will be his last time playing the iconic superhero. He recently starred on Broadway in Lobby Hero and is primed to begin production on the feature The Devil All the Time. Evans is repped by CAA, 3 Arts and attorney Jason Sloane.

For Apple, Defending Jacob becomes the tech behemoth’s latest scripted foray. It joins a roster of scripted originals including Amazing Stories, Are You Sleeping, Calls, Central Park, Dickinson, Little America, Little Voice, See and the untitled Jennifer Aniston-Reese Witherspoon morning show drama, as well as entries from Damien Chazelle, M. Night Shymalan and more. Still to be determined is when — and specifically how — Apple will unspool its rapidly growing roster of high-profile projects.

Defending Jacob is Apple’s latest buy from Paramount TV, joining the Jon M. Chu-directed Hilde Lysiak drama and the international fantasy drama Shantaram. The studio, which recently replaced ousted president Amy Powell with Nicole Clemens, has multiple series set at every streaming outlet, including Netflix (13 Reasons Why), Hulu (Catch-22) and Amazon (Jack Ryan), among others. The studio has a long-running deal with Anonymous Content, which is where Clemens was prior to being tapped to replace Powell.

DEADLINE – EXCLUSIVE: Christine and Simon Killer director Antonio Campos has set up his next film just in time to be a hot Toronto sales package. Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Mia Wasikowska, Chris Evans and Tracy Letts are in talks to star in The Devil All the Time. The pic is an adaptation of Donald Ray Pollock’s 2011 novel that Campos and Paulo Campos penned. Antonio Campos will direct. The film will be produced by Randall Poster, and Jake Gyllenhaal and Riva Marker of Ninestories Productions. Production is set to get underway in February 2019.

The novel’s plot: In a place called Knockemstiff, Ohio, a forgotten backwoods of this country – a storm of faith, violence and redemption brews. Out of desperation to save his dying wife, our protagonist Willard Russell turns to prayer which succumbs to sacrifice. His son Arvin (Holland) is growing from a kid bullied at school into a man who knows when to take action. The cast of characters includes a serial killer couple, a faith-testing preacher and a corrupt local sheriff (Evans) in a story told across two decades.

The Devil All the Time now joins other film projects on the burner for Campos, who has signed on to rewrite and direct the Fox Searchlight horror film Splitfoot, and is aboard to direct a prequel to The Omen for 20th Century Fox.

Campos is coming off last year’s critical hit Christine, and has been busy on the TV side of late, directing and executive producing USA’s The Sinner starring Jessica Biel. As a producer, his credits include Martha Macy May Marlene, James White, The Eyes of My Mother and Piercing.

Endeavor Content is raising the financing and will broker distribution.

DEADLINE – EXCLUSIVE: Here’s a sexy project making its way into the market to liven up a Sunday. Avengers and Captain America franchise star Chris Evans has been set to lead disaster thriller Greenland, the latest from District 9 helmer Neill Blomkamp. Fast-emerging outfit Anton is producing alongside Thunder Road Pictures’ Basil Iwanyk. Anton is co-financing with Riverstone Pictures. STXinternational is handling overseas distribution, presenting the project to buyers here, and will directly distribute in the UK and Ireland. CAA Media Finance arranged the financing and will rep domestic rights alongside Endeavor Content.

Details on Greenland’s plot are being kept close to the vest. It’s the story of a family’s fight for survival in the face of a cataclysmic natural disaster. Principal photography is set for the last quarter of 2018.

Anton’s Sébastien Raybaud and Harold van Lier are executive producing with Riverstone’s Nik Bower and Deepak Nayar. Thunder Road developed the picture with Riverstone and UK financier Ingenious Media.

“When we read Greenland, we knew it was exactly the sort of film we wanted to make as we build the Anton brand — smart, character driven genre with action and heart. We are very excited to work alongside our friends at STX with such exceptional talent as Neill Blomkamp, Chris Evans and Basil Iwanyk,” says Raybaud, CEO of Anton.

David Kosse, President of STXinternational, adds, “Greenland is the kind of highly commercial genre fare that sees Neill Blomkamp doing what he does best: delivering a smart, fresh, high concept narrative in a world we can easily recognize. We were immediately attracted to this talent-driven, wide release, theatrical title that is so distinctive of the STX brand. Working alongside Neill, Thunder Road, Riverstone and Anton to bring this to the marketplace is a tremendous opportunity.”

Evans is currently on screens in Disney/Marvel juggernaut Avengers: Infinity War which has grossed over $1.4B worldwide and counting. Of late, he’s also been expanding his creative range, making his directorial debut with drama Before We Go and upcoming has Gideon Raff’s The Red Sea Diving Resort, which STXinternational is also repping. He’s also currently on Broadway with a critically lauded turn in Lobby Hero.

Blomkamp shot to international acclaim as the co-writer and director of the groundbreaking sci-fi pic District 9, for which he was nominated for a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar. His following films, Elysium starring Matt Damon and Chappie starring Hugh Jackman and Dev Patel, grossed over $388M combined.

Greenland is a hot project for the STXinternational slate which has blossomed since the division launched under Kosse in 2016. Upcoming releases include Baltasar Kormakur’s Adrift starring Shailene Woodley and Sam Claflin (also co-financed by Ingenious) in June; and Mile 22 from director Peter Berg and starring Mark Wahlberg, and The Happytime Murders starring Melissa McCarthy, both in August.

Kosse says, “The recent reaction at CinemaCon to our current slate was a wonderful validation of the choices we make when investing in our films and filmmakers. There are only a handful of truly great films available for the international marketplace and STX is consistently managing to be a destination company for those films — both our own in-house productions and titles we represent. We came away from Cannes last year handling one of the most valuable titles in All the Money In The World and this year is looking equally rewarding.”

Anton has backed hits like the Paddington franchise and Shaun The Sheep, and is expanding rapidly into high-end TV dramas through its partnership with BBC Studio backing shows such as McMafia. It is also lead financing and selling Fireheart, the next animated project from the producers of Ballerina and Untouchables.

Evans is repped by CAA, 3 Arts Entertainment, Narrative PR and attorney Jason Sloane. Blomkamp is repped by WME and Gendler & Kelly.

BOSTON GLOBE – Betrayed by the system. Cast out by his beloved country’s leadership. Suddenly, bitterly at odds with longtime friends. It sure has been a rough couple of movies for Chris Evans’s Captain America.

“Government and the military were always where he looked to find order and a sense of home,” says Sudbury native Evans, speaking by phone from New York. “In ‘The Winter Soldier,’ when those failed him, his chosen family became the thing he would set his watch to. Then, in ‘Civil War,’ that fell apart.”

Audiences looking for the old familiar Steve Rogers, super soldier, may have to sit tight for a bit in watching “Avengers: Infinity War.” “There’s been this period of sadness and disillusionment, where you go inside yourself for a while,” he continues. “But we’ll see him reemerging and reconnecting.”

Evans, 36, shared further thoughts on the new movie — and his seven-year tour of duty as Cap — during a day off from his Broadway debut, “Lobby Hero,” a revival of a drama by “Manchester by the Sea” writer-director Kenneth Lonergan.

Q. You’ve been playing Captain America since “The First Avenger,” back in 2011. Has the process of making these movies changed for you?

A. During the first couple of films, I was a little overwhelmed, I suppose. You’re grateful to be there, but also intimidated by the magnitude and the responsibility. But then as you get more and more comfortable with the process, everything kind of ascends in unison. The people that you’re working with start to become family, you become much more familiar with the way these things come to life, and you can start being more precise and involved.

Q. What’s been most fulfilling about the way you’ve been able to develop Cap over this many movies?

A. It’s exciting to actually get to grow with a character and find a more broad, long-term arc, versus having to accomplish something in an hour and a half. But to be honest, none of it would really work if it weren’t for the people at Marvel. They care so much about the characters because they’re fans themselves. You just do this one small thing, and then you get to stand on their shoulders.

Q. Which actors do you interact with most out of the sprawling “Infinity War” cast? And are Marvel’s pairings purely about the story, or does chemistry figure into it?

A. I think they factor in a lot of things — who the fans enjoy watching together; who the characters benefit from, based on their natures, where they’re trying to send each one. Without spoiling anything, I’d say I have a lot of stuff with Scarlett [Johansson] again this time. One of Cap’s through-lines has been his relationship with Black Widow. It’s an unlikely friendship, where they really depend on each other in a very specific way.

Q. Is the physical aspect of playing Cap and the toll it takes still comparable to when you started?

A. No, I definitely can feel myself aging a little. There were a couple of moments in the script where I read them and thought, “Wow, this is going to be a challenge.” It’s still fun to go to work and really throw yourself around, and it’s rewarding to go home on those days and feel you contributed and gave it everything you had. But it certainly is a bit harder to wake up the next morning [laughs].

Q. If there’s some part of Cap’s iconography that people now think of specifically as a Chris Evans touch, what would you hope it is?

A. Being selfless without being sanctimonious. It’s a danger — he’s a very magnanimous character, very noble, and I think that can slip into piety pretty easily. So trying to keep that sense of being a good man without, basically, being annoying [laughs].

Q. That’s quite a mustache you’re sporting for the cop character you play in “Lobby Hero.” Should fans be bracing themselves when they catch you on the “Avengers” publicity circuit?

A. Yeah, sadly, I can’t take that off [laughs]. That thing’s with me for the next month.