How Captain America: Civil War directors went from cult creators to superhero wranglers
Russo brothers Anthony and Joe plan to shake up the status quo by deconstructing Marvel’s cinematic universe
The Russo brothers might be nerd royalty now – having directed 2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier and this summer’s sequel, Civil War, before being entrusted with Marvel’s crown jewel, The Avengers – but when they shot the pilot for the cult TV series Arrested Development, their dailies terrified a Fox executive.
“They called us up after seeing the first day of dailies, we were on set on day two, and they said, ‘This is a disaster!’” Anthony Russo recalls of his early work on the 2003 comedy series.
“To be fair, we were running four or five cameras at a time,” brother and directing partner Joe Russo interjects. “We knew we were going to grab two seconds here, three seconds there.”
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Tasked with reinventing the sitcom, the pair of self-described guerilla filmmakers took to the streets, jumping out of vans with fully wired actors and hand-held cameras, filming permits be damned.
“It was revolutionary at the time,” Anthony continues. “We were shooting in digital video, which nobody understood. The irony of it is that we ended up getting an Emmy for directing on the episode where they were like, ‘You guys can’t direct!’”
The Arrested Development pilot would serve as a calling card for the duo, landing them a gig shooting Community, another indie-darling TV comedy.
That’s about when Marvel came calling.