True story: I wanted to go see The Accountant one afternoon and forgot to check Rotten Tomatoes until I got to the theater. I saw that it had a dismal rating and so I went to see Deepwater Horizon instead and was not disappointed. I enjoy even mediocre action survival movies, for instance I saw Independence Day: Resurgence twice (don’t judge) but Deepwater was decent and entertaining. Since then I haven’t bothered with The Accountant, there are just way too many other shows and movies to catch. Some of my friends said they liked it though, so I’m open to watching it. My reluctance to see it, and the critcs’ opinions, don’t matter as much as the box office though, and so it’s getting a sequel. This isn’t inexplicable, it made money hence there’s a sequel coming. I thought Affleck was still getting his sh-t together in regard to whether he even wants to play Batman again so this is surprising to me.

Warner Bros is mobilizing a sequel to the 2016 hit The Accountant. Screenwriter Bill Dubuque, director Gavin O’Connor and Ben Affleck are in talks to return, along with the producers Lynette Howell Taylor and Mark Williams. All those deals are being worked out right now. I’m told they will then work out the beats of the story, which likely will include Jon Bernthal, whose character asserted himself at the conclusion of the first film.

The original starred Affleck as the title character, a math savant with high-functioning autism who works as a forensic accountant and un-cooks the books for unsavory criminal organizations under the glare of law enforcement. When a new client put him in danger and the Treasury Department closes in, the title character’s skills as an assassin led to a body count that might have prompted John Wick to say, “Woah.”

The film isn’t the kind that usually makes a studio like Warner Bros rush to sequelize. But on a $44 million budget, it grossed $155 million. It was a clever, unusual crime thriller, and there is room to expand the palate with Bernthal, who played a long-lost bad-guy brother equally capable of creating mayhem thanks to the sadistic military ops father who trained them.

Affleck next stars as Batman in Justice League, which Warner Bros opens November 17.

[From Deadline]

Remember how, right before he went to rehab for whatever amount of time, Affleck was waffling about whether he would go through with the standalone Batman movie because no one liked his gangster movie, Live By Night? It also lost a sh-tton of money for Warner Brothers? He then pulled out of directing that movie. Maybe this is a pure business decision, like they ran the projections, realized a sequel to this movie would make some money. Also, the latest on the Batman movie, currently titled The Batman, has it moving forward with Affleck to star. Director Matt Reeves (Cloverfield, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes) told Batman-News “Yeah. Right now, that’s what is going on. For sure.” That doesn’t sound so sure. I hope Affleck stays sober or all bets are off.

photos credit: WENN and Warner Brothers