oe and Anthony Russo, the Coen Brothers ofTV, haveshepherded such series as "Communify" and "H"ppyEndings" as executive producers and "Arrested Develop-ment" and other series as directors, winning an EmmyAward along the way. They ve even edged into the

Coens' territory movies, directing the 2006 hit You, Me and Dupree.And you see what all those comedies have in common? They're notaction-adventure political thrillers. You know what is? Their immi-nent Marvel Studios movie, CaptainArnerica:Zhe Winter Soldier.

"Well, look," says Joe Russo affably, aware of the discordancebetween their usual farcical surrealism and the dead-serious sryle ofMarvel movies, "it was surprising, but it's reflective of the choicesMarvel has made up until this point."The studio's executives "arerisk-takers, and I think that even asking us to come into the roomto talk about the film tells you how outside the box they think.Itwas really just lstudio president] Kevin Feige,who was a huge fan of'Community' and loved the kickoff of season 1q76"-((fl6thropologyL01,"wriften by Chris McKenna, directed byJoe and guest-starringBettyWhite as a deadly professor gone rogue-Das well as some ofthe other genre spoofs we did," including such cult-classics as thespaghetti-western homage'A Fistfrrl of Paintballs. "

CaptainAmerica:Zhe Winter Soldier picks up roughly two yearsafter the events of Maroel's'Ihe Avengers (2012). Steve Rogers (ChrisEvans)-the sole successfi.rl result of a World War II experiment toenhance soldiers'physical abilities-is living quiedy in Washing-ton, D.C. Still acclimating to the modern world after having beenrevived from decades of suspended animation at the end of the oth-erwise period war film CaptainArnerica:The FirstAvenger (207I),he's drawn into a web of political intrigue involving internationalpeacekeepers S.H.I.E.L.D.; top agent Natasha Romanoff, the BlackWidow (ScarlettJohansson); and an enigmatic Russian assassin, theWinter Solider (Sebastian Stan).

"There's a sharp tonal difference"between the first film, directedbyJoe Johnston, and this one, says Joe Russo. "The first movie isa love letter to the [1940s] Golden Age comics.This film drawsits inspiration from a modern story written by Ed Brubaker fin acomic-book storyline beginning in 2005], so it's extremely differentin tone," harkening back to such 1970s political-conspiracy thrillersas ExecutiveAction,Three Days of the Condor andAll the President\Men.Those last two starred Robert Redford,who was cast here inpart to bring an iconic echo to the role of Alexander Pierce, a seniorS.H.I.E.L.D. official over agency director Nick Fury (Samuel L.Jaclson, in his sixth fi.lm in that role, including three cameos).

"We wanted to contemporize fSteve Rogers] very quickly andwe wanted him to represent themes that are interesting to us aboutthe modern world,"Joe continues. "We wanted him going on clan-destine operations for a clandestine organization so we could puthim in conflict with the philosophy of that organization."

In the script by the first film's returning screenwriters, Chris-topher Markus and Stephen McFeely, that thematic bullet hits itsbull's-eye when Rogers takes in the full impact of S.H.I.E.L.D.'spost-g / 7\, Homeland-Security-on-steroids tactics and seethes toFury "This isnt freedom. This is fear."

"It's hard to make a political film that's not topicaL," says An-thony Russo. "Thatt what makes a political thriller different fromjust a thriller. And that's what adds to the characters'paranoia and

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the audience's experience of that paranoia.But we're also very pop-culture-obsessedand we love topicaliry so we kept push-ing to fhave] scenes that, fortunately orunfortunately, played out fduring the timethat Edward] Snowden outed the NSA.That stuffwas already in the zeitgeist," hesays "We were all reading the articles thatwere coming out questioning drone strikes,pre-emptive strikes, civil liberties-Obamatalking about who they would kill, y'know?We wanted to put all of that into the filmbecause it would be a contrast to Captgreatest-generation fway of thinkingJ."

Such thoughtful enthusiasm helpsexplain how mro producer-directors bestknown forTV comedy got the gig-one

it makes the languagevery easy,"saysJoe.'And I think that's what made this processwith Marvel so fruitful and enjoyable. Ourprocess is to talk things through out loudand be collaborative, and Marvel provided agreat environment for us to do that. Makinga movie of this scale fbudgeted, says the LosAngeles Times,at $170 million], a big por-tion of your job is managing a large team ofpeople ail trying to help you realne your vi-sion. And the better you are at enunciatingyour point ofview and what you're lookingfor, the more cohesive the movie will feel. Ithink being a directing team served us verywell in making this movie."

Adds Anthony, "We're both on set allthe time, wete at the monitor to look at

thony Mackie, he's a former military manwho now works as a PTSD counselor andhelps'Cap with the aid of a winged, jet-powered flight exoskeleton.

Also new is Emily VanCamp, who,as Feige confirmed last summer, playsS.H.I.E.L.D. Agent 13 a.k.a. SharonCarter. Not every Marvel character trans-lates directly from comics to screen, ofcourse-witness the completely differentMandarin in last year's Iron Man 3-soFrank Grillo, playing a S.H.I.E.L.D. agentnamed Rumlow, is not the costumed mer-cenary Crossbones (named Brock Rumlowin the comics). As to whether Mackie andVanCamp will reprise their characters,"The only thing I think I can say is that

for which, the brothers say, neither theynor their agent lobbied. "We literaily justshowed up on the list," says Anthony, theolder of the two ("I was born in Februaryof 7970 and Joe was born in July of 1977")."We just got a call from our agent one dayand he said,'Hey, Marvelt got a list ofpeople they're going to be talking to aboutthe next Captain America movie andyou guys are on it.'We were shocked andthrilled because wete such big fans of whatthey've been doing. That was one of thethings that really excited us-they came tous, in a way.That was really encouraging."

On set, Anthony notes, the brothers"don't really divide duties" but "have a kindof Socratic dialogue between ourselvesand work things out together. We alwaystell people that they never have to double-cover us-if you speak to one of us, you'respeaking to both of us, so I think thatmakes it easy for people to collaborate withus. We come from a big Italian family, sowe're very used to communicating, collabo-rating and working as a team.It's a veryeasy process for us. We always tell every-body we dont mind if they mix us up."

"We're brothers, we grew up together-

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things, we discuss what's going on afterevery take, we look at the notes together-it's a very democratic process."

Like directorJoss Whedon with ZheAvengers,the brothers "shot almost all theexteriors in Cleveland"-where, coinci-dentally, they were raised, attended CaseWestern Reserve Universiry and made the72-mrnute student fiIm Pieces (1,997) forwhat they said was about $30,000 in cred-it-card debt. Steven Soderbergh eventuallysaw it at the film festival Slamdance andencouraged the brothers' ambitions overthe course ofthree years; he and businesspartner George Clooney then producedthe Russos'second film, the 2002 crimecomedy Wlcorne to Collinzaood. As for oth-er locations, "The movie is primarily set inWashington, D.C., and we did about three

" days in Washington with the main castand ourselves, but D.C. is an extremely dif-ficult place fin which] to shoot."The stagework took place in Los Angeles.

The movie introduces Sam Wilson a.k.a.the Falcon-comics' first African-Americansuperhero, created by writer-editor Stan Leeand artist Gene Colan tn CaptainAmerica#117 (Sept.7969).As played here by An-

both of those actors signed multiple-picture contracts with Marvel." Stan Leehas his usual cameo appearance, and there'seven a blink-and-miss-it text shout-out toWhedon. An end-credits scene introducesyet another enduring Marvel villain. Willthe events of the movie affect the ABC TVseries "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. "which has referen ied The Aaengersr.rd l"rtyear's Thor:7he Dark Worlfr "We dorit havea relationship with the show,"Anthonycautions, "but from what we've heard, yes."

For all the hoopla surrounding thisnext Marvel Studios movie-part of whatFeige calls the Marvel Cinematic Universeof Paramount and now Disney releases,separate from 20th Century Fox's X-Menand Fantastic Four films and Columbia'sSpider-Man franchise-the filmmak-ing brothers seem unrufled by having tofollow on the heels of the $1.2 billion-grossing Iron Man 3 and the $639 million-grossing Thor sequel.

"Two schmoes from Cleveland foundtheir way into the movie business," saysAnthony, or maybe Joe.

Yeah. And two schmoes from Cleve-land created Superman. *

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