Once upon a time, not too long ago, we almost got filmmaker Gavin O’Connor tackling The Suicide Squad. Those plans never came to fruition, and now we know why.
In a recent interview with The Playlist, The Accountant director opened up about penning a script for DC Films and how the process went. He starts off with how it all began, stating that: “What happened there was I wrote a deal to write a script, and they knew what I was writing. At that level, with those kinds of movies, with that budget, no one’s just going off and writing something without walking them through what the movie’s gonna be, and everyone was cool with it.”
As he neared the end of the scriptwriting process, a massive shift happened behind-the-scenes at DC Films, and O’Connor claims the new regime wanted a vastly different movie: “What happened was during the latter part of writing the script there was a whole regime change at DC, and when that happened, they wanted it to be a comedy,” he recalled. “And I’m like, ‘I’m not writing a comedy.‘ I mean, It [was] fun, but it’s not a yuk-fest. And the new regime wanted a different movie than I was writing.”
When pressed by The Playlist Podcast on if he’d seen James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad, O’Connor offered up a firm no. “I have no interest [to see it], to be honest,” he said. As for crafting another comic book movie, the filmmaker claims, “I’m just doing my own thing.”
Since this situation, Gavin O’Connor went on to re-team with his The Accountant star Ben Affleck for the film The Way Back. O’Connor also executive produced Mare of Easttown, which went on to receive 16 nominations at the 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards.
Welcome to hell—a.k.a. Belle Reve, the prison with the highest mortality rate in the US of A. Where the worst Super-Villains are kept and where they will do anything to get out—even join the super-secret, super-shady Task Force X. Today’s do-or-die assignment? Assemble a collection of cons, including Bloodsport, Peacemaker, Captain Boomerang, Ratcatcher 2, Savant, King Shark, Blackguard, Javelin and everyone’s favorite psycho, Harley Quinn. Then arm them heavily and drop them (literally) on the remote, enemy-infused island of Corto Maltese. Trekking through a jungle teeming with militant adversaries and guerrilla forces at every turn, the Squad is on a search-and-destroy mission with only Colonel Rick Flag on the ground to make them behave…and Amanda Waller’s government techies in their ears, tracking their every movement. And as always, one wrong move and they’re dead (whether at the hands of their opponents, a teammate, or Waller herself). If anyone’s laying down bets, the smart money is against them—all of them.
The Suicide Squad sees James Gunn directing a cast that includes Suicide Squad returnees Margot Robbie (Harley Quinn), Jai Courtney (Captain Boomerang), Joel Kinnaman (Rick Flag) and Viola Davis (Amanda Waller) as well as new DCEU additions Idris Elba, Peter Capaldi, Alice Braga, Nathan Fillion, Taika Waititi, Jennifer Holland, David Dastmalchian, Joaquín Cosío, Mayling Ng, Flula Borg, Juan Diego Botto, Storm Reid, John Cena, Pete Davidson, Tinashe Kajese, Daniela Melchior, Julio Ruiz, Steve Agee, Michael Rooker, Sean Gunn, and Sylvester Stallone.
