Screenwriter, filmmaker, and podcaster Brian Koppelman (“Ocean’s Thirteen,” “Rounders,” “Billions”) is a very open guy, and on his The Moment With Brian Koppelman podcast, he does AMAs (ask me anything), where he answers mailbag questions. But, for a while there, the writer/director/showrunner used to add something to the effect of, just don’t ask me questions about “Rounders 2.”
The context here is “Rounders” is Koppelman’s 1998 poker movie he co-wrote with creative partner David Levien and directed by John Dahl. Starring Matt Damon and Ed Norton, the film was a bomb at the time, but it’s since grown into a big cult classic, especially as the world of poker exploded on television and online. “Rounders 2,” a sequel, has been discussed, seemingly for years, and apparently started to get under the writer’s skin on social media because it became a kind of running joke that people would always ask him about it.
Regardless, when Koppelman was on Twitter (he quit during the Elon Musk era, hard to blame him), he used to occasionally drop hints about “Rounder 2” being a thing (until the incessant questions seemed to annoy and then he dropped it).
So what’s the status of the movie, if anything at all? Well, still ongoing, according to Matt Damon. And Ben Affleck may be involved too. Both were on Bill Simmon’s The Ringer podcast promoting “Air,” the Nike drama that Affleck directed and co-stars in, and features Damon in one of the lead roles. Simmons loves “Rounders,” so naturally, the sequel came up.
“‘Rounders,’ that actually reminds me… actually, I didn’t want to do this on the podcast,” Affleck said, seemingly shying away from discussing something that they eventually talked about slightly.
“We’ve been talking about it for years,” Damon said. “We’re investigating whether we can do it because it’s so…” and then Simmons cut him off (argh).
“We’re investigating,” Affleck stressed. What Damon was likely about to say is that “Rounders 2” is likely mired in a lot of rights complications like many of the Miramax films of that era (Harvey Weinstein was involved too, which makes it extra complicated and messy probably).
That’s about as far as they got with details, but they did talk about the original film at length. “That movie was a bomb,” Damon said. “The whole thing it was years later—2007, I think it was when it finally went into the black.”
Will “Rounders 2” ever happen with Damon, Norton, and maybe Affleck as a new foil? Time will tell, and keep your fingers crossed. In the interim, listen to the podcast below.