After nearly half a year of negotiations, Netflix has closed a deal for the next big-budget movie from Joe and Anthony Russo.
The duo, known for the Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame mega-blockbusters, will direct The Electric State for the streaming giant, a move that reunites them with the company behind their current project, the action movie The Gray May, which debuts in July.
Millie Bobby Brown, the breakout star of Netflix’s Stranger Things, is on board to star in the feature, with Chris Pratt, who appeared in the Russos’ Avengers movies, in talks to join her.
Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely, longtime Russo scribes who worked on Gray Man as well as the Avengers pics, are writing the script.
The cost isn’t cheap. The project was previously set up at Universal, which eventually balked at the price tag and put it into turnaround. The new budget is north of $200 million, according to sources.
The story centers on an orphaned teenager (Brown) who traverses an American west that is reminiscent of a retro-future with a sweet but mysterious robot and an eccentric drifter in search of her younger brother.
The project adapts the acclaimed 2018 illustrated novel by Simon Stålenhag, the writer-artist who also created Tales from the Loop.
Producing are the Russos via their AGBO banner, along with the company’s co-founder, Mike Larocca. Chris Castaldi and Patrick Newall are also producing. Executive producing are Angela Russo-Otstot, Jake Aust, Geoff Haley, Markus, and McFeely.
Production is slated to begin in October in Atlanta.
The Russos are repped by CAA and Greenberg Glusker while Brown is repped by WME and Hansen Jacobson.