‘The Accountant 2’ Director Gavin O’ConNOR on the Sequel’s Real-Time Relevance and His ‘Warrior’ Series

Gavin O’Connor Walked Quite The Tonal Tightrope On The accountant 2.

In 2018, The Filmmaker Initated Development on a follow-up to his bean affleck-Led Sleeper Hit from Two Rears Earlier. Alongside Franchise Screenwriter Bill Dubuque, they Decides to Tackle Human Trafficking I Buddy Action-Comedy About Christian (Affleck) and Bratston Wolff’s (Jon Bernet. O’Connor Was Well Aware of the “Tall Tonal Order” in Front of HIM, BUT AFTER HIS PREVIUS AFFLECK DRAMA, The Way Back (2020), opened in theaters just fives before the Pandemic Shut Down the Country, He Knew He Also Wanted to Give Audiences Some Theater

The Sequel’s Story Still Has Some of the Darker Undertones of the Predecessor, Namely in the Form of A Central Mystery Involving A Fracture Salvadran Field Natien. States. The Subplot Bears at Least Some Resemblance To The Current Headlines About the Family of Salvadran Migrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia Become This Relevant in Real Time. (The Nature of Affleck’s Autistic Vigilante Accountant Character HAS ITS OWN Newfound Relevance, As Well.)

“IT’s Not New That People Are Determinated to Leave the Violence and Poverty of That Country to Country to America and Start Right Place, ”O’ConNor Tells The Hollywood Reporter In Support of April 25’s Theatric Release. “Shining A Light on and Putting That Up on Screen Was Just Really Important to Me. But It Was Very Tricky, Tonally, To Straddle That Line And Still TRY TO MAKE A FUN MOVIE.

O’Connor is Determined to Complete Accountant TRILOGY, AND HE’S CONFIDENT THAT The Threequel Won’t Take the Better Part of A Decade Like the Sequel.

“We Always Intended It to Be A Trirogy, and We’re Having Conversations [with Amazon]SO it will not be Another Nine Years Before We Do Our Third One, “O’Connor Stresses.“ CHRIS [Affleck] Needs to Find Love. SO I WANT TO BE ABLE TO GIVE Christian that by the end of the Third Movie. ”

O’ConNor’s 2011 Film, WarriorContinues to be one of the most Beloved Sports Drams of All Time. The MMA Story About the Conlon Brothers-Starring Two Thwo-Mostly-Banknown Leads in Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton-UnderPerFirMed at the Box Office, Grossing $ 24.2 Million Again. However, It’s Had A Storified Post-The Teatric Afterlife Between Itar $ 20 Million in Estimated DVD/Blu-Ray Sales and A Consistent Presance on Premium and Basic Cables Cable.

O’Connor Prevenly Had A Spiritual Sequel Series Set Up at Paramount+ and HBO Max, Respectively, But Both Streamers Dropped Out Mid-Development, Likely Due to 2022 Streaming. In any event, the Long island Native Still Hasn’t Given Up on One of His Dream Projects.

“If there is a project i’ve every have that is so passionately alive in my Bloodstream, It’s this TV Series. So i’m Hoping and Find the Right Home for It,“ O’Connor Says. “The DNA OF THE MOVIE Warrior Was Two Brothers on a Colings Course to Fight Each Other in The Sparta Tournament. So the Series is Called Warriors Because We Took That Idea for Two Men and Two Women. There’s Nothing Like It On Television, SO Hopeful Someone Can See What I have in my head. ”

Below, During A Recent Conversation with ThrO’connor also discusses WHY HE ISN’T OPTIMICAL About California’s CHANCES OF MEANINGFully Reigning Production, Before Addressing How A Lightsaber Ended Up in Affleck’s’s

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In December ’21, I Asked Jon Bernthal About a Ten-Potential Accountant Sequel, and He wasn’t Ready to Count His Chickens Just Yet.

(Laughs.)

Was there Quite a bit of uncertainty as to whather this wold actualally happen?

Yeah, There’s Been Uncertainty for Years. I Been A VERY KAFKAESQUE Experience Trying to get this Movie Made, Especialy Considering The Accountant Did Fairly Well at the Box Office, vis-a-vis the [$44 million] Budget that we have on that first movie. IT WAS A PRETTY PROFITABLE FILM, DOMESTICALLY AND GLOBALLY. So, for a myriad of reasons, there was a Lot of starting and stopping, and obstacles Kept Getting Thrown in the Way. SO it wore on all of US, and while we all passionately Wanted to make the movie, I Think We Were All Cauotuos After All The Starts and Stops. It Just Never Felt Like It Was Guaranteed to Happen.

Ben Affleck (Christian Wolff), Cynthia Addai-Robinson (Marybeth Medina), Director Gavin O’ConNOR, and Jon Berunthal (BRAX) IN IN The accountant 2. Warrick Page/Prime

You Really Have A Knack for Telling Fraternal Stories. Is there a Deep-Rotted Explanation for this?

I Definitely Gravitate Towards Stories of Brothers and Stories of Fathers and Sons, SO There’s A Thematic Through-Line there. WHEN I look at Warriorthat was a very biographical film in so Many Ways. As a filmmaker, i’m obviously trying to express myself Through Story. So[[Accountant Franchise writer]Bill Dubuque and I Very Intenationally Wanted to Explore The Relationship with the Two Brothers in the Second Accountant Movie. That washa always a very Important Exercise for Us. People have asked about Anna Kendrick’s [absence]But She Was Never Intended to Be in the Second Movie. IT WAS ALWAYS About Bringing the Brothers Together so they can try to fix Things with Each Other. That’s Really What We Wanted To Explore. THESE Are Two Guys That Are Searching for Human Connection and Love, Which We Can All Relate to. So i love the idea of ​​exploring stories of brothers, but i’m very far away from chris [Wolff] in a Lot of Ways, and i’m Very Far Away from Braxton [Wolff] In a Lot of Ways. So[[The accountant 2]is probably a little less personal than my of my own films in regard to the depth of the Characters, But Not in Regard to the Emotion Thorugh and understanding and hope.

You have the utter comedy ratther significantly from the Original. Both of the Wolff Brothers have Hysterical ReintDuchation Scenes. WAS this a Way to Offset the Darkness of the Human Trafficking Story That Everybody Is Investigating?

That’s a Really Good Question. Yeah, Shining A Light on Human Trafficking Was Something Was Really Important to Me. But Predaers Feasting on the World’s MOST VULNARABLE POPLE DOESN’T REALLY MAKE FOR AN INTINING MOVIE. WHEN BEN AND I MADE The Way BackThe MOVIE OPENED ON A FRIDAY, AND TheATERS CLOSED ON MONDAY [due to the pandemic]. IT WAS JUST DEAD IN THE WATER, AND IT WAS SO HEARTBREAKING. SO, YES, AS MUCH AS I WANTED TO BUILD The POLOT AROUND HUMAN TRAFFICKING, I ALSO WANTED TO MAKE An Exuberantly Enterning Movie [for theaters]. IT WAS VERY INTENTIONAL THAT I WANTED TO MAKE A Fun, Emocial Film. In Essence, I Wanted to Make My Version of A Popcorn Movie. That’s Really What I Was Trying To Do. I Not Necessarily Just a Thriller or Just An Action Movie; It have a Lot of Food Groups in It. But Ultimately, It’s A Story About a Search for Love and Connection that’s Always Focusion on the Characters.

SO The SMuggling Business Part of of Was Challenging. This Idea of ​​People Coming Here with the Dream of Living in America and Trying to Really Deal What Honestly Was A Tall Tall Order, While Balancing, As You Just Mentioned And I HONESTLY DIDNN’T KNOW THAT I PULLED IT OFF. I CERTAINLY DIDNN’T KNOK WHEN I WAS CHOTING IT, TUOUGH I WAS TRACKING IT The WHOLE TIME. It wasn’t Clear Until I ACTUALLY SHOWED The MOVIE TO BEN. He is the First Person Who Saw [my director’s cut] WHEN I FELT LIKE IT WAS READY TO BE SEEN. SO HE CALLED ME UP, AND HE WAS VERY PLEASED. HE FELT LIKE I PULLED IT OFF. I then put it up in front of a test screening Audence, and that Cemented It All Because It Was Very Well-Received. SO it could have gone the Other Way, Brother. It Really Could Have, But Fortunately, It Didn’t.

Christian Wolff (Ben Affleck) and Brax (Jon Bernthal) in Gavin O’Connor’s The accountant 2. CourTesy of Amazon Mgm Studios

Is this Also WHY YOU DIALED BACK Christian’s Rituals Involving Death Metal, Strobe Lights and A Wooden Stick?

No, i just felt like we did that already. I HAD NO INTEREST IN REPEATING WHAT WE DID BEFORE. There Were Certain DNA ELEments that We Preserved from The FIRST FILLM, But VERY FEW. There’s Obviously The Aircstream and Some Behavioral Details. Bill and I Talked A Lot About What It Should Be, Architecturally, and What We Were Going for Terms of Plot and Theme and The Brothers. But The First Draft Bill Handed Me Had A Lot of Homages to the FIRST FILLM, AND I REMEMBER Calling Him Up and Saying, “Dude, I Have No Interest in Repeating What We Did ALREADY. I RELYAN WANT. Want to Build on the First One, But I Want to Do Something Veri Different and Very New. ” So i would’ve been bored just repeating what we did before.

There Was Already a Relevance to this Movie, But Recent Headlines Have Made It All The More Relevant. HAVING LIVED COMPLETH MOVIE FOR MANY Years Now, Is It Quite Bizarre to See It Become So of the Moment in Real Time?

I’m assuming you’re referring to el salvador?

Precisely.

WELL, IT’S NOT NEW THAT ARE DETERMINED TO LEAVE the Violence and Poverty of that Country, Like Many of Central American and Latin Countries, to Come to America and Lelfe. I a Country that Bill and I HAD READ About and Researched, and It Just Felt Like The Right Place. THEN THERE’S THIS ARDUUS, DAngeRous Journey from Central America Across Mexico, Before Reaching The Us Border and Being CAPTUED BY A DRUG CARTEL. This is all real Stuff. SO we just did a Lot of Research and Tried to Deal with that as Honestly as Possible. Shining A Light on It And Putting That Up On Screen Was Just Really Important to Me. We Know What HapPens to Tese People. They Get Forced Into Prostity and Maid Work – Jobs that People in America Don’t Want. But as i said, it was very tricky, tonally, to strADDle that line and still try to make a fun movie. There ain’t nothing funny about human trafficking.

You have the good fortune of chooting The accountant 2 in california, and the local Industry is in Desperate Need of More Production Opportunities. Are You Optimistic That State Will Take The Necessary Steps to Enseure That Outcome?

To be totally honey, with [Gavin] Newsom As Our Go Vernor, i’m Not Optimistic About Anything with That Guy. I Feel Like He Puts His Finger Up To The Wind and Parrots Whatever Is Popular in the Moment, and Ten He’ll Change His Mind and About Face WHEN The Wind Blows The Other Way. So, Sadly, i’m not [optimistic]. But we have always chooting here who got the rebate or not, Because ben and i didn’t want to go to atlanta again. We have families here [in L.A.]SO we wanted to stand home. Fortunately, [Affleck and Matt Damon’s] Artists Equity Was Finance The Movie, so It Was Really Ben’s Call. HE WAS GRACIUS ENOUGH TO BE LIKE, “EVEN IF WE DON’T GET [the rebate]we’re chooting here. ” And i’m so deeply grateful to him for that.

We Thon Got An A-Plus Crew Because People Were Like, “I Can Work with You Guys an Go Home at Night to Get In Bed with My Wife, and Be Home With My Kids on the Weekends? ” So we have the pick of the little to the crew, which was fantastic. [of where we shot]. Everyone Worked Really Hard, Obviously, But We Were Really Conscious of Getting People Home on Time. I was Always Trying to Not Only Make My Days, But Also DO 10-HOUR Days to Get People Home to Their Families. That pays huge dividends with a Crew, Creatively, Artistically and Spirituly.

I Never Expert to See Ben Affleck Holding A Lightsaber in a Accountant Movie. Shawn Levy and Ryan Reynolds had to do this for a movie, but did you guys also have to win a request letter to disney?

(Laughs.) I so funny you bring that up. In the Script, Chris Calls Brax While Sitting on His Bed, And Going To The Set That Morning, I Was Like, “There’s Better Than. How Do We Keep Pushing Character?” I’m always trying to keep pushing Character. SO WHEN I GOT to SET, My PROP MASTER, JP JONES, WAS The FIRST PERSON I GRABBED. I Said, “I NEED A LIGHTSABER. FIND ME A LIGHTSABER. I’ll Push the Scene Until Later in the Day.” And you know what? We Never Asked Disney. I just shot it without getting permission. Fortunately, Very Fortunately, They Were Very Cool About It, But I Ignorantly Didn’t Even Ask for Permission. We just shot it.

I was the captain of my High School Basketball Team, and so i’ve Played Ball for Some Flawed Individuals in My Life. Thus, i Connected a Great Deal with The Way Back.

(Laughs.)

Given the weight of that Subject Matter, I have to imagine that it was a very heavy set. DID The accountant 2 Set Have a Completely Opposite Vibe?

There Were Some Really Heavy Days[on[onThe Way Back]But We Also Had A Lot of Fun With The Kids. They Could All Play Basketball, and Ben Was So Great With Them. That was the first film i shot digly. I ACTUALLY WANTED TO Shoot Super 16, But I Got A Lot of Pushback From Warner Bros. SO I STARTED DOING TESTS WITH THE ARRI Digital Camera and Live Grain to Represent the Super 16 Look. We Moved Really Fast. Ben would Literally Get there in the morning, and he Never Left Set. Hust Hung Out All Day and Never Went Back to His Trailer. SO We Were Rocking and Rolling, and there Were Scenes that Were Really Intense and Heavy. And i love that. I was Really Happy with How The Film Came Out, But As I SAID, IT WAS SO DISAPPOINING WHEN Theaters Got Shut Down. I HAD A DAY OR TWO OF DISAPPOINTMENT, But THEN I TONOUGHT, “WHAT The FUCK? IT’S A MOVIE. People Are Really Suffering with Covid. Who Am I to Bening ABOUT IT?”

[[The accountant 2]Felt Different Because and Hired First Ad Mariela [Comitini]. This was the first time i’ve every worked with her, and i will make every movie with her now. She’s A Fucking Surgeon in Regard to Building A Board and A Schoredule and Moving Things AROUND LIKE A PUZZLE MASTER. She’s brilliant at that, but she’s also so kind and so loving. I Always Play Music on Set; that’s Something I’ve Always Done. But she said, “I like to start the day with a song that’s theater for whover we’re doing that day.” SO Overyone Shows Up, She Blasts A Song, She Starts To Sing, She Starts to Dance, and Ten She Gets Everybody on the Crew Dancing. SO we started every day with a dance party in the morning. We have a blast, and it allowed US to Connect. IT ALLOWED US TO HAVE this comradery, and we all had this love for each. We Really Did Even Thought It Was A Circus. SO We Really Bonded at the Start of Every Day Before Getting to Work, and She Was Really Responsible for Setting That Fun Tone Every Everia Morning.

Brax (Jon Bernthal) and Christian Wolff (Ben Affleck) In The accountant 2. Warrick Page/Prime

Do you still intend to turn The Accountant Into A Trirogy?

Yeah, Absolutely. We Always Intended It to Be A Trirogy, and SO We’re Having Conversations. Ben and I, Our Producer Lynette [Howell Taylor]and Writer Bill [Dubuque]we’re all having conversations with Amazon about that very Thing, so it will not be antioner nine years before we do our third one. Chris Needs to Find Love. That’s what we set up with this Character who’s in Search of Love and Human Connection. So i want to be able to give Christian that by the end of the Third Movie.

I’m proud to say that i paid to see Warrior in a Movie theater Way Back WHEN. Is your spinoff series, WarriorsStill Alive in Some Capacity?

WHEN WE SET IT UP, IT WAS AT PARAMOUNT+. We wrote a script, and then, for whover reason, they have been wanted to go in a differ Direction. What Happy Is All Unexplainable to Me. But I HAD A Script at this Point, and It’s Very Representative of What the Series Is Going to Be. IT Introduces All The Characters Except for One. HBO MAX THEN SAID they wanted to do it, and so we pivotted to hbo max. And then, for whover reason, they decided they didn’t want to do it. They Were Going in A Different Direction. SO I NEED TO FIND A HOME, MAN. Excluding the Movie Warriorif there’s Any Project i’ve Ever Had that is so passionately alive in my Bloodstream, is this TV Series. So i’m hoping i find the right home for it.

The dna of the movie Warrior Was Two Brothers on a Colings Course to Fight Each Other in The Sparta Tournament. So the Series is Called Warriors Because We Took That Idea for Two Men and Two Women. They are all fighters, but i hook you into their life fights outtside of the cage. We’re Going to Explore Their Stories As They’re on A Colition Course to Fight Each Other at Sparta. So that’s the idea, and I hope we can find a home, because i so believ in this show and what it could could be. There’s Nothing Like It On Television, SO Hopeful Someone Can See What I have in my head.

Tom Hardy As Tommy Conlon in Gavin O’CONNOR’S Warrior (2011).

Lastly, You Produced The 2002 Documentary, The smashing machineAbout Mixed Martial Artist Mark Kerr. Are You Eager to See Howny Safdie Translates that Story Into A Narrative Feature Starring DWAYNE JOHNSON?

I am. Mark Kerr is a friend of Mine, SO I ACTUALLY THAT OUT THROUGH MARK HIMSELF. He Called Me Up, and HE WAS JUST TRYING TO GET SOME LEGAL Advice Because It Involved His Life Rights, Obviously. So that’s how and found out about it. My First Ad, Mariela, Is Also Friends with the Producers. I don’T KNOW EITHER OF THE SAFDIES, But They’re Obviously Really Good Filmmakers. So i’ll be the first person in line to see that some comes out in theater.

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The accountant 2 is now playing in movie theaters nationwide.