The Russo Brothers Begged Steven Soderbergh To Talk Them Up To Kevin Feige To Land Captain America: The Winter Soldier
It's been nearly a decade at this point, but for a lot of MCU fans, "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" is still one of the best movies Marvel has ever made. It's a fast-paced spy thriller following Steve Rodgers (Chris Evans) at his most compelling, a film that also served as a kind-of sequel to "The Avengers," following up on SHIELD, Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson).
And whereas a lot of Marvel films have a tendency towards fight scenes where none of the hits feel like they really matter, the action scenes in this film undeniably go hard. The elevator scene in particular made an impact, to the point where "Community" did a whole homage to it in their season 6 paintball episode two years later. This was the movie that guaranteed that Anthony Russo and Joe Russo — widely known as the Russo brothers — would be chosen to direct "Captain America: Civil War," and paved the way for them to take on "Infinity War" and "Endgame," the latter of which is still one of the highest grossing films of all time.
But before "Winter Soldier," the Russo brothers were best known for films like "You, Me and Dupree," and for their work on sitcoms like "Happy Endings" and the early seasons of "Community." From President of Marvel Studios Kevin Feige's perspective, they were not the obvious choice to continue Captain America's story at all. That's why the Russo brothers got some help from their friend Steven Soderbergh, the well-established filmmaker behind movies like "Traffic" and "Sex, Lies, and Videotape."
Getting them their dream job
Soderbergh recalled in a recent Rolling Stone interview how the Russo brothers had called him up back in 2012. "We're up for this Captain America movie," they reportedly said to him. "Will you call Kevin Feige and say nice things about us?" Soderbergh agreed, under the condition that they confirm that this is really what they want, not just something they think they should want. "Oh no, we have this massive comic book collection. This is our dream job," they answered. After their success with four major Marvel blockbusters, it seems clear they were telling the truth. "It turns out they weren't kidding," Soderbergh remarked.
Of course, even if they hadn't had a massive comic book collection to point to, the Russos still had "Community" on their resume. A sitcom may not sound like a relevant experience for "The Winter Soldier," but the Russo-directed season 2 finale of "Community" is not a typical sitcom episode. It's an epic, sprawling story of an entire school plunged into a paintball war, fit with multiple action sequences that could've easily fit in a blockbuster film. The main joke of these episodes is that the action scenes are way cooler than they have any right to be, considering the show's budget and what you'd expect from a standard sitcom.
Even back before the Russos were working for Marvel, it was clear that this sort of action-oriented storytelling was exactly what they were best suited to do. "That s**t's hard. I couldn't do it," Soderbergh said about Marvel movies, but with "Community" the Russo brothers had proven they were up for the challenge.