- Matt Damon has revealed heโs actively attempted to get a Rounders sequel off the ground.
- The iconic poker drama underwhelmed at the box office during the 90s, but has since cemented its status as an all-time classic.
- There is, however, one problem thatโs perennially stopped the Hollywood star of Good Will Hunting, Saving Private Ryan, & The Bourne Trilogy fame.
Few cult classic films are as beloved as 1998โs Rounders starring Matt Damon and Ed Norton.
Directed by John Dahl, the Miramax flick followed two friends who enter high-stakes poker games to pay off their debt to the Russian mob. It also featured unforgettable performances from the likes of John Turturro, and Famke Janssen, as well as John Malkovich as the cartoonish Teddy โKGBโ (whacky accent and all).
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And by all accounts, Damon is raring the pull the trigger on a Rounders sequel; which heโs reportedly discussed with original screenwriters and Billions co-creators David Levien & Brian Koppelman โ10 or 15 years ago.โ
โThe one weโve been talking about for years, and weโre trying to โ and I just saw Edward Norton a few weeks ago โ like all of us want to do it is a second Rounders movie,โ he stated on The Rich Eisen Show.
โSo much has happened in the poker world in the last 25 years, it would be fun to catch up with those guys.โ
The only major roadblock appears to be a matter of the movieโs rights.
Damon continued: โYouโve got to figure out the chain of title and who owns it, and everybodyโs got their hand in the pot.โ
โSo weโve got to figure out a way to make a deal that makes sense for everybody, particularly the people who are going to make the movie because, at Artists Equity [Damonโs production company founded alongside Ben Affleck], thatโs who we care about, are the cast and crew.โ
โWeโre trying to figure that out because I think weโd all like to do that.โ
While the original didnโt perform as well as many had hoped during its theatrical run โ generating just US$22.9 million against a US$12 million budget โ as Matt Damon has previously explained, Rounders was produced at a time when studios could afford (and were fully willing) to take creative risks for one key reason.
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โThe DVD was a huge part of our business, of our revenue stream, and technology has just made that obsolete,โ Damon explained to Sean Evans on First We Feastโs Hot Ones.
โThe movies that we used to make, you could afford to not make all your money when it played in the theatre because you knew you had the DVD coming behind the release, and six months later, youโd get a whole โnother chunk. It would be like reopening the movie, almost. When that went away, that changed the type of movies that we could make.โ
In the event a Rounders sequel ever materialises with Matt Damon and Ed Norton attached, itโd certainly go beyond breaking even. But for the time being, all we can do is wait and see.
Stay tuned for more.
