Forgotten Ben Affleck thriller is finally getting a sequel
Topics: Ben Affleck, Celebrity, Film and TV
Kit Roberts
Featured Image Credit: Warner Bros
Topics: Ben Affleck, Celebrity, Film and TV
A movie starring Ben Affleck in the lead role is finally getting a sequel eight years after the original was released.
In the 2016 movie, Affleck plays Christian Wolff who is autistic and a mathematical genius.
He works as an accountant laundering money for some of the most dangerous criminals in the world.
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Over the course of the thriller we follow Wolff's connections to the criminal underworld, the government trying to track him down, and his relationship with his father.
When it was released, it received mixed reviews, ultimately getting a critics score of 52 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.
As is often the case, the audience score is higher, coming in at an impressive 72 percent.
The 2016 flick - called The Accountant - grossed $86 million at the domestic box office and raked in $155 million globally.
A sequel for the movie has been confirmed as being in the works, and has moved from Warner Bros over to Amazon MGM Studios, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Affleck is reportedly set to reprise his role as Wolff, with the casting process now underway.
Precise details about the plot of the sequel have not yet been released, however a summary gives an idea of what audiences can expect.
It describes how Wolff must return to solve a mysterious murder. His progress towards solving it, using 'less-than-legal' methods, ends up drawing the attention of 'some of the most ruthless killers alive', the movie's summary reads.
The Hollywood Reporter states that Affleck will be joined by J.K. Simmons, Cynthia Addai-Robinson and Jon Bernthal - all of whom featured in the original.
It's also been reported that director of the first movie Gavin O’Connor and screenwriter Bill Dubuque are also back.
However, Anna Kendrick - who played accountant Dana Cummings - will not be returning for the sequel.
The movie is due to begin production later this month.
Disability rights advocates previously criticised The Accountant for its portrayal of autism, arguing that it falls into common tropes about people with autism.
When the original film was released, activist and writer Kim Sauders penned: "He [Wolff] is only Autistic in the sense that he maintains a number of physical behaviors of a fake Hollywood Autistic."
Meanwhile in an article for the Center for Disability Rights, campaigner Dominick Evans wrote of the film: "Disabled people have been excluded from Hollywood enough as it is. The disability community must refuse to support films like this."