Welcome to Gerard Butler Online - your source on the scottish actor, known in particular thanks to 300 (2006), in the role of King Leonidas, and The Phantom of the Opera (2004), in the role of The Phantom. Here, we provide fans with the best content on Gerard Butler, like HQ pictures, videos, interviews and articles. Stay around and always get informed on your favorite actor.
Den of Thieves 2: Pantera is the long-awaited follow-up to writer/director Christian Gudegast’s 2018 crime thriller Den of Thieves. The sequel once again stars Gerard Butler (Olympus Has Fallen, The Night Before Christmas in Wonderland) as Sherriff “Big Nick” O’Brien and O’Shea Jackson Jr. (Cocaine Bear, Obi-Wan Kenobi) as the ambitious thief Donnie Wilson and is set after the events of the first film, which saw Wilson pull a huge heist out from under O’Brien’s nose. While the first film was set in Los Angeles, Den of Thieves 2: Pantera promises to tell an international story and bring its primary characters to Europe, and its trailer even teases something of a villainous turn for Butler’s character.
Screen Rant is happy to offer a first look at the poster for Den of Thieves 2: Pantera. The poster highlights key members of the Den of Thieves 2: Pantera cast in Butler and Jackson, even teasing their collaboration in the sequel, and employs a bold color scheme that evokes the dual-sided nature of its story. Take a look at the poster, below, and get ready to watch Den of Thieves 2: Pantera when it hits theaters on January 10.
Heist movies based on true stories are not unheard of, but both Den of Thieves and Den of Thieves 2: Pantera have pulled from real-life events to create a more engaging and grounded story. What feels more unique is that the films have borrowed elements from famous gangs and heists but reworked them into the story that writer/director Christian Gudegast wanted to tell. Den of Thieves was based on an uncovered, but foiled, plot to rob the Federal Reserve, and Den of Thieves 2: Pantera draws lots of inspiration from the 2003 Antwerp diamond heist. Both movies pick up from there, however, changing the year and even the outcome of their inspirations. This storytelling style allowed Gudegast to borrow the best elements of each heist without sacrificing story and character demands.
Den of Thieves also stands apart thanks to its focus on its characters. The film is structured in a way that lets audiences spend plenty of time with characters on both sides of the law, which stands apart from other films that lean into humor and flash to make a heist pop off the screen. During an interview with Screen Rant for the first film, Gudegast even stressed that that work went into building out the character relationships, and it’s likely a similar approach was taken for Den of Thieves 2: Pantera.
The first Den of Thieves was able to use the goodwill it built up toward its characters to full effect thanks to a last-act twist that firmly set it apart from many other films in the genre. With the reveal at the end of Den of Thieves (spoilers) that Donnie had orchestrated the whole heist, the movie stepped out of the shadow of other heist films and forged its own way forward. With Gerard Butler going criminal in Den of Thieves 2: Pantera, it’s clear that the franchise intends to keep finding surprising and unique ways to utilize its characters.
How to Train Your Dragon gave us a first look at Hiccup recently, and while the actor seems to look a lot like the character from DreamWorks’ original animated film, there are some concerns about other characters not quite fitting the proportions of their animated counterparts.
However, Gerard Butler is looking to put our minds at ease. The actor will play Stoick the Vast in the live-action movie just as he did in the original trilogy, and to make himself look like the animated character, there’s a hefty costume involved.
“I had seven layers, thick layers, and a thick beard, and then I had a kind of bearskin or wolfskin over it. It was heavy as shit,” he told Collider. “When I had my sword and my shield and the helmet, which was heavy, and all those layers with the clasps that went around, it was 90 pounds, my costume. I was, in the middle of the coldest day, soaking wet from sweat inside because it was like a furnace in there.”
We’ve not seen how Stoick will look yet, but with a 90-pound costume, we can imagine he’s certainly going to be vast.
Gerard Butler Details How His Live-Action How To Train Your Dragon Costume Helped Him Deal With The Freezing Weather
Filming for How To Train Your Dragonhas not been a simple process for star Gerard Butler. The upcoming How To Train Your Dragon remake is currently in development and is expected to be released in June 2025. Filming wrapped in May 2024, and the months since have been devoted to editing, CGI, and VFX work. The movie will feature an all-new cast, featuring Mason Thames as Hiccup and Nico Parker as Astrid. Butler is expected to be the only actor to reprise his role from the animated movies, as he will appear as Stoick the Vast.
Butler spoke with Collider about the production and revealed a funny but arduous anecdote. The production took place in Northern Ireland from January to May, where it often falls to below-freezing temperatures. Butler took ice baths each morning by choice and then proceeded to film. The other actors were shaking, but Butler recounted wearing such a heavy costume that “it was like a furnace in there.” Despite his ice bath, Butler was hotter than any other star. Check out his full story below:
Yes, it was very cold and kind of miserable because we went at the worst time. It was December, or really starting in January. I had a hotel room that had glass right down by my bath, and for some reason, I had decided I was going to take ice baths every morning . So, at five in the morning, my [physical therapist] — because I’m like, “I’m not going to put the ice in the bath,” — would come in and fill my bath with ice, and I would get in this ice bath, but outside it would be dark with wind blowing, soaking wet. You know how freezing it was. At least if you’re doing an ice bath, and you’re in LA it’s a blue sky. This was like, “I am going out into that.”
But I had seven layers, thick layers, and a thick beard, and then I had a kind of bearskin or wolfskin over it . It was heavy as sh-t. When I had my sword and my shield and the helmet, which was heavy, and all those layers with the clasps that went around, it was 90 pounds, my costume. I was, in the middle of the coldest day, soaking wet from sweat inside because it was like a furnace in there. So, I guess I had the benefit of… I was rarely cold while everybody else was like this. I was like, “Yeah, my beard’s coming off because of the sweat.” You gotta stick it back down. My eyebrows were coming off. I had to stick it down because I was sweating so much.
As horrible as it must have been to be sweating his beard off, Butler’s filming challenges are a good sign for the movie. After all, if the costume was thick enough to keep him warm in the frozen environment, then it is likely fairly realistic for what real Vikings might have worn. Real-world Vikings needed to rely on tunics, leathers, and buckles to ensure that they could remain warm while raiding along the water and being buffeted by winds. Butler’s costume appears to have kept him warm in similar conditions.
The live-action How To Train Your Dragon cast will need to remain faithful to the animated original, but that alone can be a severe challenge. However, Butler’s comment also provides some details about his live-action appearance as Stoick the Vast. With the mention of the thick beard, the layered clothing, and the armor, it seems that his live-action Stoick will be close to the image of the original animated version. With the first look at the live-action Hiccup already released online, it is only a matter of time before more photos of the remaining cast, including Butler, become available.
Some movies are far easier to adapt to a live-action environment. Many upcoming live-action Disney remakes, including Robin Hood, lend themselves well to a remake format with minimal need for excessive CGI. A movie about dragons, however, will inevitably run into the same VFX and budgeting issues that House of the Dragon has been facing. Producing a live-action How to Train Your Dragon was always going to be challenging for the stars, and Butler’s willingness to wear such a limiting costume is proof that they are up to the task.
