It’s a tough market: Russo Brothers on making indie film ‘Cherry’

PTI, Jun 22, 2019, 3:19 PM IST

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Los Angeles: Director duo Anthony and Joe Russo have back-to-back four Marvel Studios blockbusters to their credit, but the filmmakers believe no matter how much box office success they have attained in recent years, it is always tough to make a indie project.

Following the blockbuster performance of their last venture “Avengers: Endgame”, the directors are now working on indie film “Cherry”, featuring Spider-Man star Tom Holland.

In an industry poll published by The New York Times, the Russos are among the leading voices from Hollywood who lamented the dwindling fortunes of the independent cinema that is struggling to survive the onslaught of big-budget commercial films in the theatres.

“When you talk about making character movies like ‘Cherry’ (after four Marvel sequels), even we are finding that is becoming increasingly difficult as the months pass – not as the years pass, as the months pass.

“It is a tough market, even for us coming off ‘Endgame’, to make a darker, character-driven movie. It’s not what the market was even two years ago,” Joe said.

His brother, Anthony, believes there is too much content being made in both films and television.

“There were 350 more movies released theatrically in the United States last year than there were when ‘Avatar’ came out in 2009. The same thing’s happening on television. There just used to be fewer of everything — fewer movie stars, too — and when the numbers start to get up this high, you start to lose the trees for the forest,” he added.

“Cherry”, based on Nico Walker’s autobiographical novel of the same name, revolves around a former Army medic who after his return from Iraq suffers from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and gets addicted to opiods.