Cherry Directors Negotiated Film Rights With Author While He Was In Prison

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The Russo Brothers, directors of the upcoming crime drama Cherry, revealed that they negotiated for the rights to the book while the author, Nico Walker, was in prison. The book serves as a semi-autobiographical take on Walker's own life and stars Tom Holland as the titular character, a former Army medic who becomes addicted to opioids and begins robbing banks to pay for his addiction. Walker was arrested in April 2011 and given an eleven-year sentence, during which he penned the novel. Cherry will be the first film the Russos have directed since Avengers: Endgame.

In an interview with Deadline, Joe and Anthony Russo spoke about the process of producing Cherry, and how their correspondence with Walker began. Anthony revealed that they had both read the book several years ago and immediately connected with it (The Russos grew up in Cleveland, where Cherry takes place) and saw its potential as a film. As the brothers began the process of acquiring the rights to the book, they eventually were put on the phone with Walker, who was still serving his sentence. Anthony said:

We read the book a couple years ago—somebody had recommended it to us—and we fell for the book really hard. And we wanted to translate it to film. And so we began inquiring about that and that process eventually led us to Nico, who was in prison at the time—he’s since been released—so our conversations with him were within that context.

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While Cherry may be on a smaller scale compared to the Russos' Marvel outings, it still seems fairly ambitious. The Russo Brothers seem to have a personal attachment and passion for the film, and going as far as acquiring the rights while Walker was still in prison shows that. All this points to the fact that Cherry will most certainly be worth watching.

Cherry (2021)
Release Date: Jan 10, 2021