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Movies & TV

29th Mar 2023

Matt Damon laughs off sequel idea to one of his biggest movies

Rory Cashin

Matt Damon

To be fair, we’re not sure we’d ever want to see a sequel to this particular movie.

As Matt Damon continues the press tour for his upcoming release Air (due to arrive in Irish cinemas on Friday, 7 April), one of the biggest talking points around the movie is that it is the first outing for a new production company set up by him and his Hollywood BFF Ben Affleck.

Since their combined press tour has begun, they’ve announced that they’re making a movie about U2’s landmark concert in Sarajevo, announced they’re making Cillian Murphy’s new movie in Ireland (with Damon also taking the time to pay massive compliments to his Oppenheimer co-star’s performance), and revealed that they actually pursued another huge actor for the Good Will Hunting role that eventually won Robin Williams the Oscar.

Adding to their list of revelations, a recent chat with Variety shows Matt Damon laughing off the idea to a sequel to Good Will Hunting when questioned about the weirdest pitch he’s ever heard for a movie.

On the red carpet for Air, Damon revealed that: “Someone just tried to pitch Ben [Affleck] Good Will Hunting 2. I shit you not, that happened. He told me that today, that’s the reason why its at the top of my mind. He was like ‘You’re not going to believe what I heard…'”

When asked if it was a serious pitch, or if it was a remake or a TV series, Damon replied: “Yeah. This was a flat-out sequel. I don’t get it. [They had the whole story.] It was a pitch. And now that we have a studio, ask me this question again next year, I’ll have even [weirder] answers for you.”

Released in 1997, Good Will Hunting was co-written by Damon and Affleck, with both actors also starring in the movie. It would go on to be nominated for nine Academy Awards, winning of two of them: Best Supporting Actor (for Robin Williams), and Best Original Screenplay (for Damon and Affleck). Against a $10 million production budget, the movie made over $225 million worldwide at the box office.

A few years back, JOE had the opportunity to chat to Damon about the infamous bench scene with Robin Williams in that movie, and you can check out his emotional response to that right here:

Main image via Variety/Twitter

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