Joe Russo: 'Netflix is easier to work with than a traditional studio'

The Russo brothers say Netflix is easier to work with than a traditional studio.

The siblings – who are best known for directing four films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’, ‘Captain America: Civil War’, ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ and ‘Avengers: Endgame’ – loved working with Netflix on ‘The Gray Man’ because the streamer is so hands off.

Anthony told The Hollywood Reporter: “We like working with new partners. There’s something very energising about bringing a movie like this out with Netflix. They think about ways of reaching audiences differently.”

Joe added: “They’re easier to work with than a traditional studio. Their mentality is more the mentality of a tech company than a studio. They’re very hands-off. Nobody bothers you. They have a different approach to how they control the budget on the movie. It’s not as stressful as it is at a studio. There are a lot of positives to working with them. And I’d argue that I think digital distribution has fostered more diversity in the past five years than Hollywood has in a hundred. Because they’re regionally supported, they need to foster connection and talent in those regional markets.

“Of course, everything’s always driven by money — but that’s an important byproduct of a company like Netflix. Anthony and I are fairly disciplined in being agnostic about presentation. ‘Extraction’ was watched 100 million times [on Netflix]. That’s the equivalent of a $2 billion movie in theatrical.”

And Joe believes there is a place for Netflix to co-exist alongside theatrical releases.

He said: “When we worked with Marvel, we traveled the world for a decade. What that allows you is an understanding that goes beyond a Hollywood-centric point of view of how to create content. We’re agnostic about delivery. You know what might make everybody happy is Netflix starts doing 45-day windows and they have their giant digital distribution platform. Everybody wins. That feels like where it’s going.”