Joe and Anthony Russo, who co-directed Winter Soldier, sat down recently and spoke about what kind of inspiration they took in the crafting of their next film, Civil War. We had always heard that the Russos made Winter Soldier a ‘spy thriller’ but what about Civil War influence? Can we expect James Bond, or perhaps the Guardians of the Galaxy might show up? Nah…but the Civil War influences might surprise you. Elaborating, Anthony Russo said, “In general, just as a framing, we always thought about Winter Soldier very specifically as a political thriller. [Civil War] we think of more as a psychological thriller. It’s connected to what we’re doing in Winter Soldier, but it evolves into a more sensitive, complicated character thriller. Again, I think based upon the fact we’re dealing with our protagonists clashing with one another.” Sounds promising, no? Everybody does love the Avengers so seeing the likes of Iron Man and Captain America facing off will definitely divide fans…or at least it should!
Joe Russo then specifically mentioned some Civil War influence. “The movie we’ve been referencing a lot on this one are Se7en, weirdly. We like smashing genres into each other, so if you can find something that’s really idiosyncratic in respect to superhero genre and you can smoosh it into it you usually wind up with something fresh and different. Se7en, Fargo… Just as far as we’re not making comparisons in terms of quality, we’re just talking influences. The Godfather, because that’s a sprawling film with a lot of characters that tells very intricate stories. Each character has an arc.” Wait, if they are mentioning Se7en and Gwyneth Paltrow is in the movie….RUN FOR THE HILLS, PEPPER!
