Filmmaking is basically a lot of collaboration and tweaking, and thanks to that, there’s a “Sicario” sequel, screenwriter Taylor Sheridan tells us.
The actor-turned-screenwriter’s debut script — which explored the War on Drugs centering on the US-Mexico border and starred Emily Blunt, Benicio Del Toro, and Josh Brolin — became one of the most talked-about movies of 2015 for its unconventional story and incredible cinematography.
Rumors of a sequel quickly spread. The sequel was confirmed this spring with the greenlight of "Soldado." Though "Sicario" director Denis Villeneuve (“Arrival”) and Blunt are not returning for the sequel, Del Toro, Brolin, and Sheridan are.
The screenwriter says there’s a big reason why it was conceivable to go forward with a part two.
“There were things that we omitted from the original script, we couldn’t shoot them in ‘Sicario,’” Sheridan recently told Business Insider. “If we had gotten them in there, we wouldn’t have a sequel. So it worked out very well.”
Sheridan also confirmed what “Soldado” director Stefan Sollima has stated in the past: The movie is a standalone story, though it'll feature Del Toro’s assassin Alejandro and Brolin’s CIA officer Matt Graver.
Sheridan — who's currently in the Oscar conversation for his second script, this summer's “Hell or High Water” — said it was fun to continue the “Sicario” story because the drug problem at the US-Mexico border “is actually worse now.” But the characters from the original will have different challenges this time around.
“In ‘Sicario’ they were operating inside the United States and utilizing a legal loophole that actually exists,” Sheridan said. “They had a chaperone. They don’t have a chaperone in the sequel, for better or for worse.”
“Soldado,” being released by Lionsgate, will open in 2017.
“Sicario” earned over $84 million worldwide (on a $30 million budget) and was nominated for three Academy Awards this year.
