1990s In 1994, at age 25, Gray debuted his first feature film
Little Odessa, starring
Tim Roth as a
hit man confronted by his younger brother upon returning to his hometown, "Little Odessa," a section of
Brighton Beach,
Brooklyn. The film won the
Silver Lion at the
51st Venice International Film Festival. In 1998, Gray began shooting his second film,
The Yards, a crime drama set in the
commuter rail yards in
New York City. The film was released theatrically by
Miramax two years later on October 12, 2000.
2000s In March 2006, Gray began production on his third film,
We Own the Night, which he had been wanting to shoot since the early 2000s. Set in 1988, it stars
Joaquin Phoenix and
Mark Wahlberg as two brothers, one a nightclub manager with ties to the mob, and the former a police detective who wages an all-out war on drugs. The film screened in competition at the
2007 Cannes Film Festival in May, receiving widely divergent reviews from international critics, and was released theatrically in the U.S. in October. After that film's success, Gray was given creative freedom for
Two Lovers which was loosely based on
Fyodor Dostoevsky’s "
White Nights". The film made its premiere at the
2008 Cannes Film Festival.
2010s ,
Greg Shapiro,
Jeremy Renner,
Marion Cotillard, Gray and wife Alexandra Dickson at the
2013 Cannes Film Festival Gray co-wrote the screenplay for
Guillaume Canet's film
Blood Ties, a
remake of the French thriller
Rivals. This collaboration led Gray to meeting Canet's partner
Marion Cotillard, whom he would cast in his next film
The Immigrant. It tells the story of a Polish nurse who is separated from her sister at
Ellis Island and forced into
prostitution by a theater manager, played by
Joaquin Phoenix. The film, which was previously titled
Lowlife and
The Nightingale, marked Gray's fourth collaboration with Phoenix. It was nominated for the at the
2013 Cannes Film Festival. In 2015, Gray directed a television commercial for
Chanel men's fragrance,
Bleu de Chanel, starring
Gaspard Ulliel. It was filmed in Los Angeles and released on February 5, 2015. In October 2016, Gray's film
The Lost City of Z premiered at the
New York Film Festival. The film, based on the
book by
David Grann, depicts the life of explorer
Percy Fawcett, played by
Charlie Hunnam. At the
2016 Cannes Film Festival, it was reported that Gray would next direct his long-gestated sci-fi space epic .
Brad Pitt signed on to star in April 2017 and the rest of the cast joined later that year. premiered at the
Venice Film Festival on August 29, 2019 and was theatrically released in the United States on September 20, 2019 by
20th Century Fox. Gray later stated that the film that was released to theaters was not his cut.
2020s On June 16, 2020, it was officially confirmed that Gray's next film, titled
Armageddon Time, would be a coming-of-age drama loosely based on his childhood memories, with
Anne Hathaway,
Anthony Hopkins and
Jeremy Strong cast in the film. The film had its world premiere at the
Cannes Film Festival on May 19, 2022 and was released in the United States on October 28, 2022 by
Focus Features. In November 2024, it was reported that Gray had set his next film,
Paper Tiger, described as a "blue chip crime-drama-thriller" following two brothers who, while in pursuit of the
American Dream, become "entangled in a scheme that turns out to be too good to be true." Filming commenced in 2025, with financing from Leone Film Group.
Unrealized and upcoming projects After
Little Odessa, Gray was offered the script for ''
The Devil's Own by Brad Pitt, a friend of his. Gray turned it down and the film was ultimately directed by Alan J. Pakula. He also passed up the opportunity to direct Good Will Hunting''. In 1997, Gray was in negotiations with producer
Art Linson to direct the
biopic Killer Spy, about
CIA agent
Aldrich Ames, based on the novel
Betrayal.
Kevin Spacey was being talked about for the starring role of Ames. In 1999, Gray was in talks to direct
Brad Pitt and
Jennifer Aniston in
Waking Up in Reno for
Miramax. The film was made three years later but without the involvement of Gray, Pitt or Aniston. It was reported in 2000 that Gray would direct and co-write
Edgardo Mortara, a film based on the
infamous 1858 kidnapping of the 6-year-old Jewish boy by the
Papal police. Gray was to collaborate with writer Rob Eshman on the screenplay. In 2003, it was rumored that Gray had written an adaptation of
Philip K. Dick's novelette "
Paycheck". Prior to
John Woo being selected,
Brett Ratner was in talks to direct. A
film was released later that year, but Gray had no involvement. In 2006, Gray was planning to direct
Alphabet City, based on the 1995 novel by
Steven Knight, who also penned the first draft of the script. In 2010, Gray was hired to rewrite the script of the
Charlie Hunnam-scripted
Vlad, which would have been a period action film based on the story of
Dracula.
Anthony Mandler had been attached to direct the film. In January 2011, it was reported that Gray would be directing a film adaptation of
Mark Greaney's novel
The Gray Man written by
Adam Cozad. The project was first set up at
New Regency.
Brad Pitt was initially cast to star, but by October 2015, he and Gray were no longer involved with the film. In April 2011,
Jeremy Renner enlisted Gray to write the screenplay for an untitled
Steve McQueen biopic with Renner in the role under his production banner The Combine. "I did it more or less as a favor to Jeremy and to honor Steve McQueen," Gray said. In August 2013, it was announced that
Warner Bros. tapped Gray to write and direct
White Devil, a film based on the life of
John Willis. It was reported in April 2015 by
Variety that Gray was to executive produce and serve as
creative consultant on
Hard Apple, an "adult-skewing"
animated series inspired by New York-born author
Jerome Charyn's Isaac Sidel novels. In April 2018, MGM closed a deal for Gray to direct
I Am Pilgrim, an adaptation of
the espionage novel by
Terry Hayes. He was slated to direct the film after he finished shooting . However, Gray confirmed in 2022 that the project is officially dead, and that it had got lost in the "business mess" with studios changing hands. In April 2022, Gray announced plans to develop a
limited series about novelist
Norman Mailer based on
J. Michael Lennon's biography
Norman Mailer: A Double Life. In October 2022, Gray said he was interested in wrangling back the cast for a semi-sequel to
Armageddon Time, to focus solely on his mother, who was portrayed by
Anne Hathaway. "The story goes in a very unexpected place," said Gray, "Because my father actually did achieve some financial success but wound up getting it all confiscated by the government when he got into legal trouble. At the same time, my mother found out she was dying. And so, it's going to be, I think, something about that period." That same month,
Deadline reported that Gray's next film would be a biopic about a young
John F. Kennedy that focused on his time in
World War II where he saved his crew from a sinking patrol boat. The film was titled
Mayday 109 and had been in development for several years before Gray boarded the project.
Bill Skarsgård was attached to star as Kennedy. In November 2022, Gray revealed in an interview for
Collider that one of his dream projects was an epic about the
Russian Revolution called
The Dream of a Thousand Men, but that it was unlikely to be made anytime soon, if at all, due to
Russia's 2022 Ukraine invasion. In March 2023, it was announced Gray would direct
Ezekiel Moss, a
Depression-set ghost story written by Keith Bunin, for
Focus Features. In February 2024, Gray replaced
Neil Burger as the director of
Summer Frost, based on
Blake Crouch's source material, which had first been announced back in 2020. In 2025,
The Hollywood Reporter announced that
Julia Roberts would be teaming with Gray for an adaptation of
Peter Swanson's forthcoming
Kill Your Darlings, a murder mystery "told in reverse." Gray also turned down the role played by
Noah Taylor in
Wes Anderson's
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. He did, however, appear in a brief cameo in a deleted scene in
Love Jones. ==Opera==