Force Of Nature: The Dry 2's Director & Star Talk Challenge Of On-Location Shoot In Mystery Sequel

Summary Force of Nature: The Dry 2 is a sequel to the 2020 Australian mystery thriller, following Federal Agent Aaron Falk searching for a missing woman.

Deborra-Lee Furness plays Jill in the movie, a key antagonist with personal ties to the missing woman, adding intrigue to the plot.

The movie features challenging on-location filming in Australian bush settings, showcasing unique landscapes and creating a gripping atmosphere.

Return to the world of Jane Harper's mysteries in Force of Nature: The Dry 2. Based on the 2017 novel of the same name, the movie serves as a sequel to the 2020 adaptation of The Dry, again following Australian Federal Agent Aaron Falk as he heads to the bush to investigate the disappearance of a woman from a corporate work retreat in the mountains. While also holding his own personal motivation for the search, the missing woman had also been an informer for Falk during his investigation into the company's fraud.

Among the group of women who venture into the mountains is Jill Bailey, their boss and the wife of the company's head who is actually behind the money laundering scheme Falk is in the midst of investigating. Though initially presented as a caring-yet-firm boss, Jill becomes a key antagonist to the missing woman as they find themselves lost during their trip, becoming a prime suspect in her disappearance as flashbacks reveal tension between them. Jill is brought to life by Deborra-Lee Furness, who marks her first major acting return to film since last voicing Barran in Zack Snyder's Legends of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole.

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Alongside Furness, the ensemble Force of Nature: The Dry 2 cast includes Eric Bana reprising his role as Falk from the first movie, Emmy-nominated The Last of Us star Anna Torv, Robin McLeavy, Sisi Stringer, Lucy Ansell, Jacqueline McKenzie, Tony Briggs and Richard Roxburgh. The sequel also sees the return of writer/director Robert Connolly, who also produced the mystery thriller adaptation alongside Bana.

In honor of the movie's United States release, Screen Rant interviewed Robert Connolly and Deborra-Lee Furness to discuss Force of Nature: The Dry 2, the former's surprise at getting to make the sequel, the challenge of filming on location, and Furness' thrill of getting to build a rapport with the rest of the cast.

Connolly & Lee-Furness Were Intrigued By The Female-Driven Story

In reflecting on the development process for the sequel, Connolly acknowledged that he and Bana never anticipated making a sequel to The Dry when making the movie, only for the duo to find themselves intrigued by the female-driven story Falk finds himself caught up in. For Furness, this also proved to be the biggest draw for the project, along with her longtime friendship with Bana and its setting:

Deborra-Lee Furness: Well, as I've said, a strong female ensemble cast. I'm a fan of the director, Robert Connolly, Eric Bana is an old friend, and they were shooting in my hometown. There was so many things that were dragging me into it. And I loved creating the character of Jill. I like to play women that are vulnerable and strong, and I get to show all the different flavors. So, for me, as an actor, it's a great challenge. Robert Connolly: Yeah, after The Dry, I went off, and I did a film called Blueback, a family film. I filmed during COVID in a beautiful remote part of Australia. I came back to Melbourne at the end of that, and I was in the edit, and just tossing around what to do next, and Eric and I had kind of knew the book, and we'd read the book. But we hadn't even for a moment considered a sequel, and we both read Force of Nature, and we were chatting about it. I think what appealed immediately, we both went, "These five women in the bush. Have you ever seen that before? No, who would play in this? Wouldn't it be amazing?" And that's what appealed to us was the unique nature of the plotting. You know, five women going on a corporate retreat, only four come out of the bush, one is missing. It felt unique and interesting and challenging enough for us, and from there, we started developing the screenplay.

Building The Group's Rapport Was Fun For Furness (Particularly With Anna)

The flashbacks find the group enduring a tale of survival after getting lost in the forest, and Force of Nature quickly sees tensions rising between the characters, particularly Alice and Jill. While the former is primarily concerned with keeping her informant nature a secret, the latter is also aware of the affair she's having with her husband. When it came to finding this relationship for their characters, Furness had a lot of fun building that with Torv, believing that's "the juice" needed for her performance:

Deborra-Lee Furness: It's always fun. As an actor, you always want something to push against, you've got to have that conflict to create the drama. So, she [Anna] made it very easy to push against, because she committed to her character. And her character, quite frankly, from my character's point of view, was very annoying. And I had obvious issues, because of what I thought to be her reality. So that's the juice, that's the juice, that's what I love to play with. I love that conflict, and making that work and navigating it. It's like a great tennis match, I'll throw the ball at you, and what are you gonna give me? It's great, I like to have a good scrap. [Chuckles]

Force of Nature's On-Location Filming Was "Incredibly Challenging"

Unlike the first movie, which was set in a desert plateau region where the country is often depicted on screen, Force of Nature: The Dry 2 offers a unique new look at Australia by spotlighting the gorgeous and dense forests the country has. While Connolly and Furness were excited about the chance to show this to international audiences, it did come with a number of challenges for them both:

Robert Connolly: Yeah, the minute you go out into that bush, you want to film in it. It's then the practical thing of, "How do you get a film crew into this location?" I mean, that beautiful waterfall, which I loved, an incredible location, but no one's ever filmed a feature film there before. Because you have to walk in, you've got to carry all the gear, and it's really tricky to film in. We were walking in under darkness with lights, and we'd get down there just so we had enough time when the light came up to film. But I think cinema does it really well, it takes audiences into landscapes that are unfamiliar and different. It's why I love watching movies, because they transport me and they travel me to places that I hope maybe to go one day. So, for US audiences, part of the magic of Force of Nature is it takes the audience into the Australian bush in a way maybe they've never seen before. I think those locations, they're all in Victoria outside the city of Melbourne, a three-hour drive out of the city. A subtropical rainforest infected with leeches and snakes, and you name it, it was there. [Chuckles] But, it was fun. An incredibly challenging, but entertaining, shoot. Deborra-Lee Furness: Hellish. [Laughs] I had been warned it was going to be challenging, but hey, I like to make movies, and whatever it takes to get on the screen, whatever is going to create the magic and the beauty and the light. Australia has a very particular light to it, which you'll see in Australian cinema. And the light, we're shooting on top of this mountain — I would never venture back into this area, I'd never find it again, that's how deep and buried we were in there. It was challenging, and it was raining, and there were leeches, and you're climbing up things, and trees are hitting you in the face, and I was always falling down the hill. So, it wasn't easy, but things that are great aren't always easy. So, it was challenging, but I had a great time. We were all in it together, so that made it fun.

About Force of Nature: The Dry 2

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After receiving a distressing call from an informant, Federal Agents Aaron Falk and Carmen Cooper head deep into the Giralang Ranges to investigate the whereabouts of their corporate whistle-blower Alice after she mysteriously disappears on a company hiking retreat. The four women who were recovered from the bush each seem to be hiding something about their traumatic experience. As Falk and Cooper close in on the case, they uncover worrying details about the connections between these women and begin to fear for the safety of their missing informant as a storm threatens to halt the search.

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Check out our other Force of Nature: The Dry 2 interview with Eric Bana.

Force of Nature: The Dry 2 is now in select theaters and on digital platforms.

Source: Screen Rant Plus