Subscribe
Follow Us
It may have been a few years since the first movie was released, but Den of Thieves 2: Pantera is finally here. Writer-director Christian Gudegast and producer Tucker Tooley are happy it's here as they continue growing the franchise.
The duo spoke to ClutchPoints at the junket for Den of Thieves 2: Pantera. While there have been several years since the first movie, Pantera didn't change much in that time. In some cases, sequels take a long time because of rewrites and creative differences. That doesn't sound like the case here.
“I mean, Christian designed the first one to have a sequel,” Tooley said. “We talk about [how] if you're paying close attention to the movie, you see the nod at the end that there was going to be another one. So, we always intended to do this.”
The biggest hurdle was not an ever-changing script — it was the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, one of the actors suffered a knee injury, which kept him out of action for “about a year.”
That extended break did give Gudegast more time to hone the story. According to Tooley, they had “abundant time to be able to research” as a result.
How Christian Gudegast and Tucker Tooley worked together on Den of Thieves 2
As director and producer, Gudegast and Tooley had to work closely together once again on Den of Thieves 2. They go way back, Gudegast said they “basically came up in the business together,” dating back to A Man Apart, which was released in 2003.
Plus, they continue to work outside of the Den of Thieves franchise. Some of this hasn't even been seen yet. “We've developed many things that haven't been shot yet that will in the future,” Gudegast said.
For him, it's “one of the best working relationships of my career.” At the very least, it's the “most important one, for sure,” as he said.
It sounds similar to what Denzel Washington and Antoine Fuqua have. Talking to Fuqua for The Equalizer 3, he said that they have a “shorthand.” That same term was used by Christian Gudegast.
“You develop a shorthand. It becomes very healthy because he's on the producing side, [and] I'm on the writing-directing side. We all need each other — it takes a lot of people to make a movie,” he explained. “You need everybody to come together; it's very important to the longevity of the franchise that we keep it going.”
Did Heat inspire Den of Thieves?
One key similarity I noticed watching Den of Thieves 2: Pantera is the dynamic between Gerard Butler and O'Shea Jackson Jr.'s characters. The cat-and-mouse dynamic is similar to Robert De Niro and Al Pacino in Michael Mann's Heat.
Ironically, Gudegast and Tooley were developing Den of Thieves even before Heat came out. “Michael Mann's an amazing filmmaker — Heat was an amazing movie,” Gudegast praised. “We actually wrote the initial outline for this movie two years before Heat came out.”
Still, Mann is a “big influence” on Guadagest's movies. Given its setting, Den of Thieves 2 was influenced by Ronin, which similarly stars De Niro.” Influences ranged from older filmmakers like Jean-Pierre Melville to “more recent gangster stuff.”
But ultimately, Den of Thieves is based on real-world events more than anything. “Frankly, the real inspirations are real-world stuff and heists,” he said.
It also sounds like Christian Gudegast and Tucker Tooley have met with some people who have pulled off real heists when developing their characters.
Taking the sequel overseas
In Den of Thieves 2, the story goes overseas, such as the Canary Islands. Tooley called the experience of filming in Europe “incredible,” even if scaling up wasn't a direct effort to make the sequel “better.” At the end of the day, they want to deliver the best movie possible, whether that includes international shoots or not.
“It's hard to complain when any place you look in the frame is beautiful,” he quipped.
Shooting in Europe allowed the action to evolve, too. Tooley mentioned how the S-turn roads, the heist, and the shootout were all done in locations that were uniquely European.
Logistically, Tooley found it to be the same as shooting in the United States. The crew received high praise from Gudegast, who also had a “shorthand” with him and Gudegast.
As a director, Gudegast acknowledged that sometimes, movies don't get made where they're set. Sometimes, you have to make one country look like another. It is one of the realities of filmmaking, and he called it the “most challenging aspect” of the job.
“That's really the on-the-ground, day-to-day challenge that you [face],” said Gudegast. “You're there with your DP and art director, and you're trying to figure out how to address something or certain angles, how you're going to shoot it to make it match where the film is set.”
If a third movie is green-lit, Christian Gudegast and Tucker Tooley are ready. “We already have the third movie mapped out, and we know what we want to do, where we're going to do it,” Gudegast revealed. “It'll be a whole different part of the world. And hopefully, we'll keep stepping it up.”
What Christian Gudegast has learned from making these movies
The first Den of Thieves was Gudegast directorial debut. Between making the two entries in the franchise, he has learned a lot about filmmaking, from directing extras to how to “cover a scene.”
It also sounds like he was involved in the editing process as well. He learned to follow his instincts when deciding how to splice the best movie together.
“Every time you do something, you become better at it. So, in the third one, hopefully, we'll all be a little bit better at our job,” he said, looking ahead.
The “brilliant” Gerard Butler
Butler is also a producer of Den of Thieves 2, in addition to starring in it. Tooley called his producing partner “brilliant” and praised his work, calling him a “value add everywhere.”
“He [Butler] and O'Shea are the movie stars, so he's integrally involved because of that,” explained Tooley. “Having been with us on the first movie and all the way through that, he really knows Big Nick.”
While his schedule keeps him from attending every single meeting or being fully available, he gives it his all when he's there. “When he is available to us, it helps from a dialogue perspective.”
Gudegast and Butler previously worked on the Has Fallen series. Gudegast wrote the script for London Has Fallen in 2016, so they knew each other heading into Den of Thieves in 2018.
As Christian Gudegast has done with Tucker Tooley, he's developed several projects with Butler that haven't seen the light of day yet. “The majority of stuff we work on in Hollywood isn't made,” he acknowledged. “I've worked with him for a long time — we get along great. He's almost like an extension of myself and the characters that I write for, to a degree.”
How to get things made
As Gudegast mentioned, it's hard to get things made in Hollywood. It is an industry run on making money, and franchises like Den of Thieves are the safest bet.
But how do you get an original idea off the ground? Before Den of Thieves got a sequel, it was an original story developed by Gudegast and Tucker Tooley.
“You're talking to the writer's side of me — it's virtually impossible,” Gudegast conceded. “I mean, I made a living just as a screenwriter for years without anything being shot. Studios buy scripts, and to get it to that point where it turns into a movie is the holy grail of the business.”
When it happens, though, it feels like a “small miracle.” It's different for a writer-director like Christian Gudegast than it is for actors. “Actors can do three [or] four movies a year. As a writer-director, I can do one every two years,” he explained. “Quite frankly, it's brutal. It's long and hard and frustrating, so when you're there, you're very appreciative of it.”
As a producer, Tooley also says it is “difficult.” He has been able to get several movies off the ground, but he also knows that “each one of them is a battle in some regard.”
Will a third movie happen?
With the introduction of streaming, though, comes more opportunities. With them entering the fray, “there's more and more content being made and produced. So, I'm optimistic [that in] the future, it will be easier. The whole development process helps you weed out what's worthy of being made.”
As for a third Den of Thieves, which Gudegast and Tooley have already mapped out, it comes down to the audience. Lionsgate needs to see butts in seats to green-light a third entry. “You can't force content [on] an audience,” as Tooley puts it. “They have to tell you what they want to see.
Tooley has been told “yes” and “no” a lot in his career. It comes down to fine-tuning your product — taking time to develop it helps you decide whether or not it's worth making. Den of Thieves and its sequel were a long time coming, but Tooley doesn't have any regrets.
“In the case of Den of Thieves, it certainly was,” he concluded.
Den of Thieves 2: Pantera is in theaters.
