Joe and Anthony Russo returned home to drive again after orienting Avengers: Endgame for the biggest box office in history. That’s where they found Cherry, the Apple TV + indie drama based on the novel by his native Cleveland colleague, Nico Walker.
The book was based on Walker’s own experiences and, with the film, and Spider manTom Holland in the lead role tells the story of a man from falling in love to his time as an army doctor in the Afghanistan war, with his return and uncontrolled PTSD that led to robbing banks, serving time and becoming addicted to drugs.
The Russo brothers stimulated the book and its subject, especially in relation to the opioid crisis and its impact on their hometown. The book auction they finally won through their AGBO banner in a $ 1 million deal was limited by Walker’s available phone minutes because the author was still serving time in prison (he was sentenced to 11 years for a series of robberies in Cleveland and surrounding suburbs, but now it’s out).
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Then it was up to screenwriter Angela Russo-Otstot, a veteran TV screenwriter (The shield), as well as AGBO’s creative president and Joe and Anthony’s sister, who worked on the script alongside Jessica Goldberg (The way) They separated the story into six distinct chapters, each filmed in a different style and feel of different periods, proportions and different appearances.
This included placing Cleveland at the front and center of the narrative, with the filmmakers’ connection evident; Anthony Russo said the street where Cherry and Emily (Ciara Bravo) live is the street where he and his brother spent the first decade of their lives, even filming at a restaurant that Joe worked at called La Dolce Vita, and at Lake View Cemetery Nearby.
“There is a lot of texture that we have experienced throughout our life that has found its way into the film’s narrative,” he said.
Cherry will premiere in some cinemas tomorrow and perform globally on Apple TV + on March 12.
Read the Russo-Otstot and Goldberg script, based on Walker’s novel, here:
