Gavin O'Connor To Direct Action-Thriller 'Fast' From 'Sicario' Writer Taylor Sheridan

Gavin O'Connor, director of The Accountant and one-time director of Suicide Squad 2, is in talks to helm the action-thriller Fast. At one point, Siciario and Hell or High Water writer Taylor Sheridan – who also wrote the script – was hoping to direct, but couldn't reach a deal. The story focuses on a special forces commando tasked with stopping drug dealers protected by the DEA. So expect lots of scenes with Kevlar vests and loud guns.Variety broke the news that Gavin O'Connor is ready to go Fast (but not Furious) for Warner Bros. As mentioned above, Taylor Sheridan was hoping to direct his own script, but that's not happening now. When Sheridan was still involved, Chris Pratt was considering taking on the lead role, but that may no longer be the case. In October of last year, Pratt was announced as being in "negotiations", but Variety indicates that the actor's involvement with the project is now up in the air.Fast "follows a former special forces commando who's recruited by the DEA to lead a black ops strike team targeting drug dealers who are protected by the CIA." Since this is a Taylor Sheridan script, you can expect lots of scenes of angry, anti-social men doing violent stuff. That's Sheridan's specialty, after all. If you don't believe me, just check out Sicario. Or Sicario: Day of the Soldado. Or Wind River. Or Hell or High Water. Or his Paramount TV series Yellowstone.

O'Connor is currently in post-production on Torrance, a sports drama that reunites him with his The Accountant star Ben Affleck. An Accountant sequel was announced as being in development in 2017, but there hasn't been much movement on it. The first Accountant was entertaining, in a ridiculous, implausible way, but I don't remember being overly impressed with O'Connor's direction. I can't even describe what filmmaking style he has, really. With that in mind, it's hard to get overly excited about Fast.

Still, the fact that a major studio is looking to greenlight an action movie from an original concept is unique. More often than not these days, studios are only interested in recognizable titles (or IP, as they call it in the biz). Warner Bros. must be confident enough in the Fast script to be willing to take a chance on it. I'm sure someone, somewhere, is also eager to turn it into a franchise, because such things are inevitable.