Anyone But You director Will Gluck on whether there’ll be a sequel

Exclusive: Will Gluck has been credited with reinvigorating the rom-com genre with his box office hit Anyone But You, but there’s often one question on everyone’s lips when they meet him.

The 2023 movie, starring Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell, was filmed largely in Sydney, with Gluck sharing fond memories of his time in Australia with nine.com.au. But it’s led fans to ask – will there be a sequel?

While promoting his upcoming rom-com One Night Only, starring Callum Turner and Monica Barbaro, the New York native joked he was taking a leaf out of Turner’s book when asked the question.

“I will answer that the same way that Callum answers all James Bond questions, which is ... ‘I’ve got no idea’,” he said.

Gluck’s latest leading man is one of the actors hotly tipped to take over the coveted 007 role.

But with Aussie Jacob Elordi also understood to be in the mix of names, Turner continued his one-line response when asked if there could ever be another Australian Bond (George Lazenby played the character in 1969’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service).

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“I’ve got no idea,” he simply answered.

Instead, Turner is happy to put all of his focus on the upcoming rom-com, which sees his character Owen dumped just before the one night of the year singles are legally allowed to have sex.

Barbaro plays his love interest, Allie, but the course of love doesn’t run smoothly, something that’s a regular feature in Gluck’s previous hits, including Friends with Benefits and Easy A.

“Most romantic movies are based on contrivances,” the director tells nine.com.au.

“They’re based on misunderstandings and plot points that could have been immediately sewed up within one sentence.

“This idea puts these two characters in a situation where the entire world is under this contrivance, it’s like who you’re going to kiss on New Year’s Eve.

“So you don’t have to worry about when Callum’s character [or] Monica’s character gets pushed and pulled away to another person, you don’t ask yourself, ‘Well, why would they do that?’ Of course they would do that, because they have 12 hours to do something.

“Once you kind of take away the conceit of the kind of fakeness and make it all real, I like discovering and analysing, how will two people who are clearly destined for each other find each other in a short, compact period of time without contrivances?”

Barbaro says the premise keeps it “fun”.

“You’re having fun watching each of them on their own journeys with every different person that they meet, because there are so many different chemistry dynamics between all kinds of crazy characters, who come in and out of the story,” she tells nine.com.au.

“But then when you feel them meet, it feels like kind of coming home ... or like landing with the two of them in a really, I think, satisfying way, because there is a friendly banter and a bit of butting heads, and you just want to see them together.”

One Night Only is set to hit Australian cinemas on August 6.