THE ENGINEERS
THROUGH THE MCU AND BEYOND, DIRECTORS JOE AND ANTHONY RUSSO, ALONGSIDE SCREENWRITERS CHRISTOPHER MARKUS AND STEPHEN McFEELY, HAVE MADE FOR ONE OF THE MOST POWERFUL CREATIVE TEAMS IN HOLLYWOOD. WITH THEIR SPRAWLING ROBOT EPIC THE ELECTRIC STATE ON THE WAY, WE GET THEM ALL TOGETHER TO TALK THE NUTS, THE BOLTS AND THE SHOUTING MATCHES
WORDS CHRIS HEWITT
Clockwise
from
main: Smuggler Keats (Chris Pratt), right;
Orphan Michelle (Millie Bobby Brown) with smiley robot Mr Peanut (Woody Harrelson);
Stephen McFeely, Joe Russo, Anthony Russo and Christopher Markus;
IF you’re ever having an argument down the pub about the great directorial streaks, here’s one to consider alongside the likes of Coppola 1972-’79, or Carpenter 1974-’86, or Laughton 1955-’55. Between 2014 and 2019, Joe and Anthony Russo directed Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. As runs go, that’s not half bad.
The Russos could do this all day, but they can’t do it alone. The input of others was crucial — Kevin Feige, for one, Robert Downey Jr and Chris Evans, for two, the entire production crew, for thousands more. But arguably the most important was the contribution of the guys who wrote all four of those movies, Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely. Thrown together when the Russos were hired to direct The Winter Soldier, the dual duos very quickly hit it off, so much so that when Avengers: Endgame signalled the Russos’ MCU endgame, they took Markus and McFeely with them to their new company, AGBO, as Co-Presidents Of Story.
And they’ve reunited once more on The Electric State, an epic sci-fi that sees the quartet play on their biggest canvas since leaving the MCU. Inspired by Simon Stålenhag ’s 2018 graphic novel, it posits an alternative history of the United States, one in which robots are machina non grata after an unsuccessful uprising against their unappreciative, exploitative human masters. Against this backdrop, a young woman (Millie Bobby Brown’s Michelle) teams up with a smuggler (Chris Pratt’s Keats) to try to unravel a mystery surrounding the disappearance of her young brother. It’s by turns intimate, epic, action-packed, thought-provoking, tonally dexterous, and sometimes decidedly, deliberately weird.