The film’s plot has mostly been kept under wraps, which is exactly what the filmmakers intended.
Returning from the original film are Affleck, Bernthal,Cynthia Addai-Robinson,J.K.
Simmons, and screenwriterBill Dubuque, and brings onJurassic World’sDaniella Pinedaas Anais.
Image by Photagonist
What took so long?
We had to figure all that out.
How does that work in terms of IP leaving the studio like that?
Image by Photagonist
OCONNOR: You could ask Warner Bros. that question.
I think part of it had to do with a lot of regime changes going on.
I think there were some regime issues going on over there.
Image by Photagonist
I don’t know if Warner Bros. wanted to do it, but I’m speculating.
Listen, the fact is, I’m just happy you got it made and that it premieres tonight.
OCONNOR: I had a couple of rules going in.
It was important to bring the two brothers together.
It’s very much, in essence, a buddy movie with the two brothers.
Chris is still searching for love and connection, andI very much was very intentionally bending the genre.
Image via Amazon MGM Studios
There’ll be a lot of surprises.
We made a lot of left turns.
DANIELLA PINEDA: I feel like Gavin always makes a movie that has heart.
Image via Amazon MGM Studios
It’s an action film, but it’s not just an action film.
People are going to laugh.
People are going to cry.
Image by Nimesh Niyomal
They’re definitely going to laugh.
CYNTHIA ADDAI-ROBINSON: I feel like the less you know going in, the better.
It’s like the first one; there’s a bit of this puzzle in this mystery.
Image via Prime Video
How much time has passed from the first film to the sequel?
OCONNOR: Eight years.
So youre using real-time?
OCONNOR: Oh yeah.
What do I have to do to get you to make more movies?
Because I’m a fan of your work.
PINEDA: Yeah, Gavin.
Why are you sleeping on that?
When COVID happened, I took four years off to be a dad and husband.
Honestly, that’s awesome for your family and your kids.
Not awesome for me, but I do respect putting family first.
OCONNOR: I appreciate that.
I’m going to make a couple in a row.
As I told my wife, I’m going to go on a little bit of a run.
This is what I’m talking about.
This is the news that I want.
How does she feel about him in the sequel?
Is she willing to put up with him?
ADDAI-ROBINSON: I almost feel like you’re going to see all of that play out in the film.
I only met him a couple of times when we were doing the first one.
I didn’t actually know what the story of the sequel was going to be.
I’m very excited at this prospect.
ADDAI-ROBINSON: The humor comes from the conflict.
OCONNOR: You’re sort of the straight man in the movie.
ADDAI-ROBINSON: Which is probably true in my life.
The film stars Ben Affleck and Jon Bernthal.
I don’t actually know much about your character.
What can you tell people?
PINEDA: She’s a dangerous lady.
She’s incredibly intelligent.
OCONNOR: She’s the mystery of the movie.
Anais is the key in the ignition of the plot.
Then there are a lot of landmines.
PINEDA: I’m a bit of a beating heart.
I do feel thatmy character is a little mix, in a sense, of both Christian and Brax.
I feel like there are little bits of those characters in mine.
I can’t say too much.
Its the dance we all play.
OCONNOR: There are some twists in there and things that we don’t want to give away.
I completely get it.
The characters are really good in the first film, but the action set pieces are pretty fucking awesome.
Talk a little bit about what you wanted to accomplish in the sequel.
How did you work with your stunt coordinator or second unit to pull off what you wanted to do?
That’s really what I was tracking.
Can you talk about working on the screenplay?
Were you thinking about some of the action set pieces?
Were you thinking about innovative ways to off people?
I don’t know what the right terminology is.
OCONNOR: That’s a fair way of saying it.
It’s done in stages.
He’s a very close friend.
What I love about Fernando is that he’s always coming from character.
You see the shooting schedule in front of you.
PINEDA: Our fight scene!
ADDAI-ROBINSON: Which I think was both.
What you hope for, and occasionally you actually get, is something to be working toward.
I feel likea great action sequence transcends the dialogue.
How is that physically possible?
The way that Gavin helped construct this fight, it was very grounded and real.
Man, it was a lot of work.
How long did it take to film your sequence?
PINEDA: Two days.
OCONNOR: Two full, long days.
She’s an athletic freak.
Someone needs to hire her again because she’s really talented.
‘The Accountant’ Has Always Been a Trilogy
“You keep climbing inside of it.
It becomes your own aesthetic and sensibility.”
With this being the sequel, how much are you guys thinking about whether this is a franchise?
What are you thinking?
OCONNOR: 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 think any filmmakers 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.
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.
He’s just the greatest.
Which is two, which is now, exactly what we talked about.
And we have three.
We’ve been now kicking the tires on what that story is.
So, we’ll be doing that next.
You said you were developing a few things and you’ve warned your wife.
What can you tease about what you’re developing?
What can you reveal?
OCONNOR:I’m writing something.
It’s not set up anywhere.
I just don’t like to set things up.
It’s an original story that I had that I have Bill writing for me.
We just started to have this great relationship, so he’s writing it.
I set it up at Apple.
That’s what I would say about it.
I am a fan ofRings of Power, and you got picked up for Season 3.
What can you tease people about the upcoming season?
When do you start filming?
What can you say?
ADDAI-ROBINSON: If someone has information for me, I would be asking the same thing.
I can’t tease much.
I don’t know much else, but I am definitely excited to return to Middle-earth.
It’s obviously this weird shift to go from that to this, a contemporary story back to that.
But yeah, I’ll be excited to go back and see what they’re up to over there.
One of the things about that show is that each episode looks like a movie.
There’s so much incredible production design and costumes.
It’s all just incredible craftspeople who work on it.
What is it actually like being in the middle of that?
What can you tell people and fans about making a show that takes that much care?
That all feels familiar to me, whether it’s a giant set piece or a windowless room.
PINEDA: Will they continue to have pointy ears in the next season?
ADDAI-ROBINSON: Well, my ears are normal, but yes, I still got the pointy ears.
All the characters you know and love are still part of Middle-earth.
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