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.

[20] 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, based on the book by David Grann, depicts the life of explorer Percy Fawcett, played by Charlie Hunnam.

Ad Astra 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.

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.

[31] 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.

[34] 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.

[39] 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.

[40] 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.

[44] 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.

"[45] 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.

[50] In March 2023, it was announced Gray would direct Ezekiel Moss, a Depression-set ghost story written by Keith Bunin, for Focus Features.

[51] 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.

[52] In November 2024, it was reported that Gray had set his next film, Paper Tiger, described as a "blue chip crime-drama-thriller" with Adam Driver, Jeremy Strong and Anne Hathaway lined up to star.

Based on Gray's original screenplay, the story follows two brothers' pursuit of the American Dream—only to become entangled in a scheme that turns out to be too good to be true.

[53] 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.