For those aching for more from Gerard Butler’s gritty, hard-nosed detective “Big Nick” O’Brien, the action star has now offered a promising update on upcoming sequel Den of Thieves 2, even offering a few plot details. While the highly anticipated follow-up to the 2018 heist movie does not yet have a confirmed release date, Butler has assured that not only is it happening, but it will continue from the events of the first Den of Thieves.
“We’re supposed to shoot early next year. We’re Europe-bound, we’re still on the hunt for Donnie who’s now on the diamond district in Marseilles. I go over to hunt him down, but with different intentions than you might imagine. So we’re gonna be in Marseilles, the Alps and London – it’s definitely a more glamorous journey than the last one, and probably a more fun, sexy journey.”
While some had suspected that Den of Thieves 2 might follow Butler’s Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department officer taking on a brand new case, it instead seems that the sequel will pick up where the first movie left off, with Big Nick tracking down O’Shea Jackson Jr.’s character, Donnie Wilso, who escaped the clutches of justice after playing a long con.
Of course, this being Big Nick O’Brien, not everything is perhaps as strait-laced as it seems, with Gerard Butler suggesting that the detective will have an ulterior motive for embarking on what sounds like a globe-trotting adventure as he hunts down Donnie.
Directed by Christian Gudegast, the first Den of Thieves follows Butler’s Nick O’Brien, the hard-drinking, hard-fighting leader of the Regulators, an elite unit of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Ray Merrimen is the recently paroled leader of the Outlaws, a gang of ex-military men who use their expertise and tactical skills to evade the law. O’Brien, Merrimen, and their crews soon find themselves on a direct collision course as the criminals hatch an elaborate plan for a seemingly impossible heist involving the city’s Federal Reserve Bank. The movie featured a memorable turn from Butler, as well as Pablo Schreiber, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, and O’Shea Jackson Jr, and the sequel sounds like an interesting change of pace whilst maintaining what made the first movie such a success with audiences.
Before the triumphant return of Big Nick, Butler will next be going toe-to-toe with Frank Grillo in the balls-the-wall action extravaganza, Copshop. Screaming through the Nevada desert in a bullet-ridden Crown Vic, wily con artist Teddy Murretto (Frank Grillo) hatches a desperate plan to hide out from lethal hitman Bob Viddick (Gerard Butler): He sucker-punches rookie officer Valerie Young (Alexis Louder) to get himself arrested and locked up in a small-town police station. But jail can’t protect Murretto for long. Viddick schemes his own way into detention, biding his time in a nearby cell until he can complete his mission. When the arrival of a competing assassin (Toby Huss) ignites all-out mayhem, mounting threats force Viddick to get creative if he wants to finish the job and escape the explosive situation.
Helmed by The Grey director Joe Carnahan, Copshop is scheduled to be released in the United States by Open Road Films on September 17, 2021. This comes to us courtesy of Uni Lad.