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The Russo Brothers Reveal How You Get a Job Directing a Marvel Movie
A lot of people were surprised when Joe and Anthony Russo were hired to direct Captain America: Winter Soldier. Understandably so, considering at the time the Russo brothers were mainly known for TV shows like Arrested Development, Happy Endings and Community. They had directed a few movies, but Welcome to Collinwood and You, Me and Dupree aren’t exactly $100+ million action movies.
So how did the Russo brothers end up becoming the directors of some of Marvel’s biggest movies to date? When we spoke to the Russos recently ahead of the Captain America: Civil War home video release, we asked about the process of landing a Marvel movie. As you can expect, it’s not easy.
Anthony Russo explained, “We did have a very long courtship with Marvel. We auditioned for the job for a good two months. I think it was four meetings over the course of two months, so we really got to know people. We got to know Kevin and his team very well by pitching our version of the movie to them in increasing detail over those two months.”
The pair tell us they did eventually get some insider advice from Iron Man director Jon Favreau, but that only came after they had been hired. Now that they’ve made two movies with Marvel Studios, though, they’ve become the guys Marvel newcomers go to for wisdom. That was precisely what happened when Sinister director Scott Derrickson was trying to land Doctor Strange. He reached out to the Russos through a mutual friend to get some advice.
Joe recalls, “I remember telling Derrickson it’s going to take every drop of blood in his body to win the job, and that he needed to treat it like the hardest job in town to win, because it is. Marvel has an incredible track record, they talk to a lot of people as part of their process. It is a highly selective process, and they want a lot of ideas and thoughts and inspiration out of the people vying for any given project. So my advice to him was to work your ass off and spend every drop of blood in your body to win it. And he did.”
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Captain America: Civil War hits Digital HD on September 2 and Blu-ray on September 13.