"We have been on a very long journey to success," says filmmaker Joe Russo. "We call it a 20-year overnight success." Together with his older brother, Anthony, the unassuming siblings are co-directors of the biggest film of all time, Avengers: Endgame.
This behemoth, which grossed $2.8 billion (Dh10.25bn), concludes years of work on the Marvel saga, and it eclipsed the box office collection of James Cameron's Titanic and Avatar when it released last year.
"It's not something you plan for," says Joe, 48. "We grew up watching James Cameron movies. We are inspired by him. So to be even in a position to have a conversation like this seems surreal to us." Cameron sent the pair "a lovely note" when Endgame went ballistic at the box office last April. Likewise, director J J Abrams and producer Kathleen Kennedy sent them a signed poster when the film's receipts passed Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens.
But after all the congratulations and celebrations, how do you move on from that? In their case, quite easily it seems. The quartet of Marvel films they made, beginning with 2014's Captain America: The Winter Soldier, is only a fraction of their output. "We spent 10 years in television," says Joe in reference to their work on sitcoms such as Arrested Development and Community, the college campus comedy their company AGBO Films co-produced.
“It’s very different when you are serving as a director or serving as a producer,” says Anthony, 50. “Our job as producers is really to support people who are on the front line.”
Extraction, a film the brothers produced, will be released on Netflix this month. Joe also wrote the script for Sam Hargrave – a former stunt co-ordinator on the Avengers films – to direct. The film reunites them all with Chris Hemsworth, who played Thor in the Marvel movies.
Everything we are doing is subversive or has some social consciousness to it or political point of view, just because it's who we are as people.
Set in Bangladesh, Hemsworth plays Tyler Rake, a mercenary embroiled in a mission to rescue the kidnapped son of an international crime lord. "Chris plays a man who is physically brave, but is an emotional coward," says Joe, who based the script on the graphic novel Ciudad, which he wrote with Ande Parks a decade ago. The idea, he says, is to "deconstruct the notions of what it means to be a hero and ask hard questions about the traditional stereotypes that play out in action movies".
As Hargrave follows in the footsteps of stuntmen-turned-directors Chad Stahelski (John Wick) and David Leitch (Atomic Blonde), he is evidently an ideal choice to take a story such as Extraction to the big screen. For the Russos, it made total sense.
“Once you make that connection with creative collaborators who you respect and hire, at that point, it’s just about empowering them to make the best movie they can,” says Anthony, who calls the film “a hardcore action movie with a soul”.
The brothers also worked as producers on Mosul, a vivid account of the joint-forces campaign to liberate the eponymous ISIS-controlled Iraqi city back in 2017. "On a personal level we were very passionate about making it," says Anthony.
Based on a New Yorker article by Luke Mogelson, it was first brought to the Russos' attention by their Avengers screenwriter Stephen McFeely. "This we felt was an incredible opportunity to portray Arab characters as heroes in a positive light," says Joe, "going against the traditional depiction in Hollywood."
If this is groundbreaking, it is hardly out of character for the brothers. “We have a social conscience,” says Joe. “Ant and I are obsessed with world issues. We have got kids who are growing up in this world. So we are concerned with the direction the world is moving in.”
His brother adds that in some ways Mosul is "an extension" of their recent work. "The one thing we got to do with the Marvel movies was engage with audiences in a really intense way all over the world. And for us, this movie is an extension of that – our ability to interact with global audiences."
Indeed, the Russos are doing exactly what any director who has scored the biggest movie of all time should be doing: getting passion projects made. “We happen to be in a very fortunate position,” says Joe. “I would not necessarily call it a turning point for us, but it’s a reflection of our intentions and where we want to go with our studio, AGBO, and the kinds of stories that we want to tell … Everything we are doing is subversive or has some social consciousness to it or political point of view, just because it’s who we are as people.”
In terms of their next directorial project, they have wasted no time in shooting crime drama Cherry. Based on Nico Walker's 2018 novel, it stars Tom Holland, the young British actor they cast as Spider-Man in Captain America: Civil War, as an army medic who robs banks to feed his opioid addiction.
"We are dealing with PTSD, the Iraq war, the legacy of that war and opioid prescriptions," says Anthony, of a story that took the Russos back to their native Ohio, where they shot their 2002 feature Welcome to Collinwood.
More exciting – at least for those who grew up in the 1980s – is the fact the brothers may be adapting hit cartoon series Battle of the Planets. "We have the rights," says Joe. "We are working on breaking a story for it. It was our favourite cartoon growing up. We used to run home from school to watch it, so we know it intimately well."
It is another chance for them to reach for the stars.
Extraction is on Netflix from Friday, April 24
Dark Souls: Remastered
Developer: From Software (remaster by QLOC)
Publisher: Namco Bandai
Price: Dh199
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Brief scoreline:
Manchester United 0
Manchester City 2
Bernardo Silva 54', Sane 66'
Global Fungi Facts
• Scientists estimate there could be as many as 3 million fungal species globally
• Only about 160,000 have been officially described leaving around 90% undiscovered
• Fungi account for roughly 90% of Earth's unknown biodiversity
• Forest fungi help tackle climate change, absorbing up to 36% of global fossil fuel emissions annually and storing around 5 billion tonnes of carbon in the planet's topsoil
Chelsea 2 Burnley 3
Chelsea Morata (69'), Luiz (88')
Burnley Vokes (24', 43'), Ward (39')
Red cards Cahill, Fabregas (Chelsea)
Zayed Sustainability Prize
SHAITTAN
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
In numbers: China in Dubai
The number of Chinese people living in Dubai: An estimated 200,000
Number of Chinese people in International City: Almost 50,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2018/19: 120,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2010: 20,000
Percentage increase in visitors in eight years: 500 per cent
In numbers
- Number of children under five will fall from 681 million in 2017 to 401m in 2100
- Over-80s will rise from 141m in 2017 to 866m in 2100
- Nigeria will become the world’s second most populous country with 791m by 2100, behind India
- China will fall dramatically from a peak of 2.4 billion in 2024 to 732 million by 2100
- an average of 2.1 children per woman is required to sustain population growth
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre flat-six
Torque: 450Nm at 6,100rpm
Transmission: 7-speed PDK auto or 6-speed manual
Fuel economy, combined: 13.8L/100km
On sale: Available to order now
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
How to apply for a drone permit
- Individuals must register on UAE Drone app or website using their UAE Pass
- Add all their personal details, including name, nationality, passport number, Emiratis ID, email and phone number
- Upload the training certificate from a centre accredited by the GCAA
- Submit their request
What are the regulations?
- Fly it within visual line of sight
- Never over populated areas
- Ensure maximum flying height of 400 feet (122 metres) above ground level is not crossed
- Users must avoid flying over restricted areas listed on the UAE Drone app
- Only fly the drone during the day, and never at night
- Should have a live feed of the drone flight
- Drones must weigh 5 kg or less
Ferrari 12Cilindri specs
Engine: naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12
Power: 819hp
Torque: 678Nm at 7,250rpm
Price: From Dh1,700,000
Available: Now
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
2018 ICC World Twenty20 Asian Western Regional Qualifier
The top three teams progress to the Asia Qualifier
Final: UAE beat Qatar by nine wickets
Third-place play-off: Kuwait beat Saudi Arabia by five runs
Table
1 UAE 5 5 0 10
2 Qatar 5 4 1 8
3 Saudi 5 3 2 6
4 Kuwait 5 2 3 4
5 Bahrain 5 1 4 2
6 Maldives 5 0 5 0
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
ELIO
Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett
Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina
Rating: 4/5
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The alternatives
• Founded in 2014, Telr is a payment aggregator and gateway with an office in Silicon Oasis. It’s e-commerce entry plan costs Dh349 monthly (plus VAT). QR codes direct customers to an online payment page and merchants can generate payments through messaging apps.
• Business Bay’s Pallapay claims 40,000-plus active merchants who can invoice customers and receive payment by card. Fees range from 1.99 per cent plus Dh1 per transaction depending on payment method and location, such as online or via UAE mobile.
• Tap started in May 2013 in Kuwait, allowing Middle East businesses to bill, accept, receive and make payments online “easier, faster and smoother” via goSell and goCollect. It supports more than 10,000 merchants. Monthly fees range from US$65-100, plus card charges of 2.75-3.75 per cent and Dh1.2 per sale.
• 2checkout’s “all-in-one payment gateway and merchant account” accepts payments in 200-plus markets for 2.4-3.9 per cent, plus a Dh1.2-Dh1.8 currency conversion charge. The US provider processes online shop and mobile transactions and has 17,000-plus active digital commerce users.
• PayPal is probably the best-known online goods payment method - usually used for eBay purchases - but can be used to receive funds, providing everyone’s signed up. Costs from 2.9 per cent plus Dh1.2 per transaction.
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League, last 16, first leg
Ajax v Real Madrid, midnight (Thursday), BeIN Sports
if you go
The flights
Etihad, Emirates and Singapore Airlines fly direct from the UAE to Singapore from Dh2,265 return including taxes. The flight takes about 7 hours.
The hotel
Rooms at the M Social Singapore cost from SG $179 (Dh488) per night including taxes.
The tour
Makan Makan Walking group tours costs from SG $90 (Dh245) per person for about three hours. Tailor-made tours can be arranged. For details go to www.woknstroll.com.sg
'The Predator'
Dir: Shane Black
Starring: Olivia Munn, Boyd Holbrook, Keegan-Michael Key
Two and a half stars