Agents of change

Why cinema-fillers the Russo brothers have embraced streaming with their epic globe-trotting spy thriller, Citadel.

- RUSSELL BAILLIE

Brothers Joe and Anthony Russo have made leftfield sitcoms, mainstream television dramas, and record-setting superhero movies. There's barely a major US television network, film studio or streamer the directing-producing duo hasn't been in business with.

And business has been good for the pair and their Agbo studio. Their Avengers: Endgame is the second-biggest film of all time (fifth, if you adjust for inflation), sitting between the two Avatars. Its predecessor, Avengers: Infinity War, is the sixth.

They were among the first supposedly left-field directors Disney-owned Marvel Studios recruited to its mega-franchise and were given Captain America: Winter Soldier then Captain America: Civil War on the strength of their work on ensemble sitcoms Community and Arrested Development, for which they won an Emmy award for directing.

More recently, they were among the producers of this year's Best Picture Oscar winner Everything Everywhere All at once. "We've had very, very eclectic careers," Anthony Russo tells the Listener on a call from Los Angeles. "What Joe and I are excited by is when we can sort of change the format of where we're working and how we're working, because it allows us to think about different ways to engage with audiences, different ways we can structure narrative and explore character. It all provides different opportunities for us on a creative side."