According to The Wrap, Joe and Anthony Russo have made a three-year first look deal with Sony Pictures. This is ahead of their commitment to direct Captain America: Civil War for Marvel, and indeed, the deal will be one-third done by the time that film comes out. It has been expected that the Russos would direct the third Avengers film, maybe even the fourth - those being the two parts of The Avengers: Infinity War. Expected but far from confirmed. These deal wouldn't necessarily slam the shutters on that. A First Look deal won't effect work for hire of that kind. What the deal really means is that the Russos are going to spend three years developing projects at Sony as producers. They may write, they may direct, but it's about work they're developing from scratch. Sony then get the "first look" at this work, and if they wave it on, the Russos could even possibly set it up at another studio. So it's not such a big deal. It may have come about because the Russos have an interesting slate of pitches and concepts they want to develop and Sony wanted in, or it could be part of some bigger agreement. Maybe the Russo Bros. will produce, or co-produce the new Spider-Man film, as had been rumoured. In any case, it's good for the Russos, probably good for Sony, and not something that we'd necessarily have even noticed if it hadn't been reported in the press. My favourite kind of news!
Brendon Connelly has been a film writer since the early 90s, with time on the staff of Orbit Magazine, Slashfilm, Bleeding Cool, Den of Geek and many more. He's a long time teacher of film studies and practical filmmaking classes, and has directed music videos, commercials, short films and more. His favourite film is Terry Gilliam's Brazil, his favourite food is pancakes or crepes, and he tries to live his life by the teachings of Kermit the Frog.
