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Red Sparrow Director Speaks Out On Black Widow Comparisons


When the first trailer of Red Sparrow came out, many fans were quick to point out that it looked like the Black Widow movie Marvel was too afraid to make. Featuring Jennifer Lawrence as the lead, it has a hard R rating, so we can expect plenty of blood and nudity, things we don't usually see in an MCU film.

Francis Lawrence, the director of the upcoming thriller, spoke with Screen Rant about the Black Widow comparisons.

Though Lawrence understands why the comparisons were made, he was quick to point out that Red Sparrow was not inspired by Black Widow. Despite some similarities to the Marvel spy, the film will be very similar to the book it's based on. Lawrence also points out that the book was written by an actual CIA agent, so it will be more authentic and not gadget-based like most spy films tend to be.

"There's people who think it's very similar to the Black Widow story. This is not pulled from BW, this is pulled from Red Sparrow, you know, it's just like written by a guy who was in the CIA. It's like, his references are coming from a very very different place from that. But there'll always be that. People like to put things in boxes, and I think is a really unique film. This is a thriller, it's not action, again it's not gadgety. It's a hard-R. There's violence, it's a bit perverse, it's suspenseful, a lot of intrigue. It‘s a very different kind of spy film."

Lawrence also feels like the origins of Natasha Romanova are so similar to the lead of Red Sparrow because her story is comprised of espionage ideas that have been around for the longest time. Both characters do have ballet in their background, which we saw in Avengers: Age of Ultron, so that's something.

"Most of the movie takes place after she's injured. There's a big sequence up front where we have a big ballet, choreographed piece that we worked quite hard on and Jen did a bunch of training for and we had great dance doubles and all that great stuff. Which is very cool, but no that's almost right away."

Red Sparrow comes out on March 2. Marvel's rumored Black Widow is aiming for a 2020 release.

Read:Scarlett Johansson Says There's Limited Time For Her To Star in Black Widow Movie

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