Millie Bobby Brown to star in new Russo brothers movie on Netflix (maybe with Chris Pratt)

Netflix is supposedly pulling back on pricey vanity projects, the sort of movies that seem like obvious awards plays that no other movie studio would pay for, but that doesn’t apply to big-budget genre movies with multiple big-name stars… like, for example, Joe and Anthony Russo’s The Electric State, which is set to star Millie Bobby Brown (and potentially Chris Pratt, who actually thinks overly religious people are kind of weird now).

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Netflix just took over the project from Universal, which “balked at the price tag” (reportedly over $200 million) and dumped it. The Electric State seems like something destined for Netflix anyway, though, with the Russos coming off of Netflix’s The Gray Man (coming next month) and Millie Bobby Brown being an integral part of the whole Netflix ecosystem (not to mention that nearly all of her non-Netflix movie roles have involved being friends with Godzilla). Maybe that’s why Netflix is happy to throw $200 million at it.

THR says The Electric State is based on Simon Stålenhag’s 2018 illustrated novel of the same name, and it’s about an orphaned teenager (Brown) searching “an American west that is reminiscent of a retro-future” for her missing brother, alongside a “sweet but mysterious robot” and “an eccentric drifter.” Longtime Russo collaborators Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely will be writing the script, having previously written Avengers: Endgame and The Gray Man.

Pratt is still “in talks” for the film, so he’s not officially onboard yet, but working with the Russos again seems like a smart move. The last couple movies he made with them were kind of a big deal, and maybe this time they won’t make his character the one who blows the whole thing. (We still blame you for letting Thanos get the Infinity Stones, Pratt!)