It seems that despite a long wait for its second installment, The Accountant franchise was always planned to be a trilogy. The Ben Affleck action thriller opened in cinemas almost a decade ago, and only now are fans finally getting to see what happened to Christian Wolff, Affleck's dual-working central character. However, according to director Gavin O'Connor, they will not be ending the story yet.
The Accountant 2 recently released its first trailer, and after a lot of behind-the-scenes issues - more on that later - fans are finally getting the sequel they have been clamoring for. While speaking to Collider's Steve Weintraub at SXSW, O'Connor explained how there had never been any other plan than to make a trilogy. He said:
"There's always been three. Since post-production, since I started editing the first one. I didn't know Bill [Dubuque]. We met on the first movie. I got the script from Lynette Howell Taylor, and then from the script that I initially got, I started working with Bill. I think any filmmaker's going to do it. You get a script, you respond to it. How does it affect you personally? But then you keep climbing inside of it. It becomes your own aesthetic and sensibility."
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The plans for The Accountant grew from O'Connor's working relationship with Dubuque, something he went on to make note of in the interview.
"Bill was a great partner in allowing me to start taking it in directions. Once we started working together, and we became really good friends -- I love Bill. He's just the greatest. "We started talking about, and I said, 'We should be doing three of these, so what's the interstitial movie?' Which is two, which is now, exactly what we talked about. And we have three."
'The Accountant 2' Was Forced Into Existence by Ben Affleck and His Team
The Accountant was an unexpected global hit back in 2016, with audiences loving the combination of clever plotting and brutal action sequences enough to give a strong 77% approval score. The story of accountant turned action hero Christian Wolff clicked with cinemagoers, and a sequel was always likely, but between 2018 and 2024, The Accountant 2 became a sequel that seemed destined to end up on the scrap heap of missed opportunities. That was until the team decided to challenge rights holders Warner Bros. Discovery over the lack of movement on the project. According to O'Connor:
"Well, I think there was a bit of revolving door and musical chairs going on at Warner Bros. We made the deal to write the next movie in 2018, and it was just, I don't know, whatever dysfunction goes on in studios these days. Once Ben had his studio, we were like, 'If you're not going to make it, don't hijack it and not allow us to go pursue this film we've been trying to make now for eight years.' They gracefully gave us their blessing and let us leave, and we went right to Amazon, because they had heard what was going on. So, we made a deal with Amazon. It was a negative pickup, so Ben's company, Artists Equity, financed the film, which was a joy."
Source: Collider
Your Rating close 10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star Rate Now 0/10 The Accountant R Action Crime Drama 10/10 Release Date October 14, 2016 Runtime 128 Minutes Director Gavin O'Connor Writers Bill Dubuque Cast See All Ben Affleck Anna Kendrick
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