Ben Affleck is one of the most unpredictable actors in Hollywood. He has been recognized by the Razzies (Gigli, Paycheck, Daredevil), and the Oscars (Good Will Hunting, Argo); he is often charismatic and capable with the media, but also produces moments like this; and he’s constantly cropping up where you least expect to see him — like in a Batman suit. The Accountant (2016) is a prime example of the latter, but despite its seemingly silly premise, we actually found it rather entertaining/engaging. That said, it did not strike us as the sort of movie that would spawn a sequel.
As Deadline reports, however, it looks like that is exactly what it has done. Director Gavin O’Connor, writer Bill Dubuque, and Affleck are all in talks to return for the sequel and, if you are surprised to hear the news, just make like titular character and play the numbers game.
Despite a relatively modest production budget of $44 million, the original grossed $155 million. That is the kind of easy math that a studio loves to do and Warner Bros. probably did not have to think all that long or hard about moving forward with a sequel.
No word yet on whether the scene-stealing Jon Bernthal will be back, but we certainly hope so. Here is what we had to say about the actor’s performance in our review:
“… it’s Bernthal’s portrayal of the charismatic killer on the trail of Affleck’s character that might be the most memorable of the movie’s second-tier players. Cool, confident, and oozing with emotion, Bernthal’s character is the polar opposite of Affleck’s accountant and manages to grab your attention in nearly every scene he’s in — even some of the shots he shares with Affleck.”
Affleck will be plenty busy as the Dark Knight in the coming months/years — with two Justice League films and a stand-alone Batman film on the horizon — but it looks like he will likely find time to squeeze this project in amid all of the caped crusading.
No word yet on what the title for this film will be, when it will release, or much of anything else at this point, but we will be sure to keep you posted.
China just gave Hollywood a cautionary tale about AI filmmaking. Sanxingdui: Future Past, billed as the country's first fully AI-generated movie, hit theaters on October 23 and bombed at the box office.
According to Futurism, the film's reported $1.5 million production budget landed on more than 10,000 screens. Yet it pulled in only about $181,000, averaging roughly $20 per screen, making the budget difficult to recover.
Some of the best shots in Grok Imagine’s AI-made Odyssey don’t contain actors. Ancient landscapes stretch into the distance. Close-ups of grimy hands suggest people who have touched something rougher than a keyboard. For a few seconds, the illusion holds.
https://twitter.com/imagine/status/2113712964419063911
YouTube videos could soon look better without eating quite so much data, right? Thankfully, the platform plans to introduce a new video format called AV2 on its web player in early 2027, promising more efficient streaming and potentially fewer playback hiccups on slower internet connections. The big headline is a roughly 30% improvement in compression efficiency over AV1, YouTube's existing video format. That doesn't guarantee every video will use 30% less data, but it could make streaming a little easier on both internet connections and data allowances.
What is AV2, and why should viewers care?