Interview: Den of Thieves 2 Director & Producer Talk New Gerard Butler Heist Sequel Movie

12/16/2024 03:00 PM

ComingSoon Senior Editor Brandon Schreur spoke to Den of Thieves 2: Pantera writer/director Christian Gudegast and producer Tucker Tooley about the upcoming O’Shea Jackson Jr. and Gerard Butler-starring sequel. Gudegast and Tooley discussed how they turned the first Den of Thieves movie into a franchise, what the process of writing a heist movie looks like, and more.

“Gerard Butler (Plane, Has Fallen series) and O'Shea Jackson Jr. (Straight Out of Compton, Godzilla: King of the Monsters) return in the sequel to 2018's action-heist hit Den of Thieves,” the official synopsis reads. “In Den of Thieves 2: Pantera, Big Nick (Butler) is back on the hunt in Europe and closing in on Donnie (Jackson), who is embroiled in the treacherous and unpredictable world of diamond thieves and the infamous Panther mafia, as they plot a massive heist of the world's largest diamond exchange.”

Den of Thieves 2: Pantera releases in United States theaters on January 10, 2025.

Brandon Schreur: I know that both of you obviously worked on the first movie. Something I loved about Den of Thieves 2 is that it felt like such a natural progression of this story, just when it comes to certain plot points, characters, and developments. I'm just curious, when you were working on the first movie, did you have this whole idea in mind for the sequel? Or when did that kind of come about?

Christian Gudegast: The long form of the story was sort of mapped out from the beginning. When researching Den 1, we came across so much material that we couldn't jam it into one movie. It's almost like we have material for several seasons of a show. Then we knew we'd sort of sparse it out over the course of several films. So, you know, we were trying to build a franchise from the very beginning based on very elaborate, fascinating heists all over the world.

We knew from the beginning that we wanted to go to Europe and, specifically, into the world of diamonds and explore that. We met all the appropriate people. The police were involved; from the diamond police to the investigations of the major heist. We met the thieves from the Balkans, hung out with them, and got all the material that's the basis of the movie.

Sure. That sounds like a lot of work, but it turned out so good.

Tucker Tooley: Movies are a lot of work!

I'm sure. Christian, in addition to directing the movie, you also wrote it. I've always kind of wondered what the process of writing a heist movie is like. I love the genre so much and I think it's so cool watching all the steps come together. Do you start with the idea of, 'Let's have them rob these jewels,' like you were saying? Or do you come up with the individual steps of the heist — like when the part when they're doing the stuff on the roof — and then work backward from there?

Gudegast: It's, honestly, just doing the research. It's finding out about actual heists and then finding a way to contact those people who were involved. Then you really get the real details as to how it was actually done because that's super fascinating to me and to all of us. How these things were pulled off — the people that do it, why they do it, and how they do it, it's really endlessly interesting. I'm just a fan of it. Out of pure curiosity, I enjoy going in, meeting the people, and discussing it.

The devil is in the details, right? It's while you are researching that you discover all these great moments, and you're basically just stacking them. You're kind of putting them all together. And when you really do the work — which, as you said, takes a long time, there's a lot of travel, going to places, meeting people, spending a lot of time with them. It's so you're not a tourist in the world. You want to really immerse yourself in the world, so you've got to spend time and then they get to trust you, know you, and the walls come down. They open up more and more to you, you get more information. And, frankly, at that point, it just writes itself. 

Sure, that makes total sense. Another thing I loved about this movie is the character dynamics between Donnie and Nick, especially how they've kind of changed from the first movie. That's very much when they're up against one another and, here, they're working together a little bit more. I really liked the scene where they go out clubbing and have that drunken conversation over shawarma. I thought that was really cool, but I'm curious how you would define that relationship overall over the course of these two movies? Do you think they are actually bettering one another in any way, or do you view it as a toxic relationship between Nick and Donnie?

Gudegast: No, I don't think it's toxic. I think they're supposed to be opposites — the thing with gangsters and cops is, oftentimes, there's a respect and maybe even a little appreciation. They all work in, like, one big business. It's one big ecosystem and they're all a part of it. I think they actually realize they actually like each other much more than they would have ever expected. I think the fondness for each other is genuine.

Thanks to Christian Gudegast and Tucker Tooley for discussing Den of Thieves 2: Pantera.

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