CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — “I find it really hard to enjoy a movie,” Sean O’Connell laughed when asked how he views movies after he’s spent more than a decade reviewing them and trying to get to the core of what makes them work or not work.
“I find it very difficult,” he continued as he sat in front of his computer, where he crafted three books in four years on the subject he said has made him who he is: the film industry.
Two walls surrounded him, filled from top to bottom with DVDs, Blu-rays, box sets of obscure television shows, and memorabilia he’s collected from the hundreds of press tours he’s attended.
Among the films he collects—films that shaped him—now sit three books with his name in the author’s byline.
“I wrote three books back-to-back, which is a mistake! Don’t ever do that!”
If the name Sean O’Connell rings a bell, it’s because you’ve probably logged into CinemaBlend, which he is the Managing Director for.
Or, you’ve checked out his podcast ReelBlend with his co-hosts Jake Hamilton and Kevin McCarthy, where they interview the biggest Hollywood stars and directors.
But, since 2021, Sean has entered into a new role as a published author who has tried to highlight and put into context some of the more special moments in cinema and those who created it.
He said of this passion, “I love hearing what could have been, or might not have ever been.”
Before he dawned on either of these titles, Sean was just a young man living in the Carolinas who loved movies.
“I was a reader and I would live in video stores,” he described of his younger years. “I’m just a storytelling fan, and film is my chosen medium for just what I really love to [do].”
For a film fan, the Carolinas was a perfect place to grow up given the cinematic moments filmed along the beaches all the way to the mountains.
“Growing up here, understanding how much of the stuff was filmed in this area makes me appreciate the depth of storytelling and the beauty that’s here in this location for visually telling stories.”
As he grew up, he began to hone his craft of reviewing movies in a way that went deeper than just labeling something “good” or “bad”, but rather what makes them the way they are.
He wrote reviews for online blogs, and websites, which got him access to exclusive press screenings, which eventually led him to where he is today.
When we spoke with Sean, he told us he was trying to take things easy.
However, to him, easy was a laundry list of movie premieres in New York, press screenings for upcoming films like Trap or Deadpool & Wolverine, and preparing to interview the stars and directors of those films.
“I try not to stop and think about just what I’ve been able to do,” he said when asked if his current vocation ever seems real.
In 2021, Sean decided he’d give himself a challenge by telling the story behind one of the more stunning and uplifting moments in Hollywood; the cancelled Zack Snyder version of The Justice League.
The subject matter would be the basis for his first book, Release The Snyder Cut, which is the play off of the hashtag that developed in the wake of Director Zack Snyder’s departure from the Justice League films.
Snyder and his family experienced heartbreak after the unexpected death of his daughter, Autumn.
Warner Bros. then asked another director to step in to help complete the film, but this led to a massive overhaul of the story structure Zack set out to make.
This led to outcry from fans demanding Zack Snyder be allowed to finish and release his version of the film.
“We’d been covering that Snyder cut story for years on CinemaBlend, you know of ‘are we ever going to see this mythical cut of this lost movie?’” Sean explained.
He began to conduct interviews with those in the industry to find out, not just what happened, but also the story behind the mythos of the movie.
“It wasn’t just the fight to get the actual movie itself released, but the way that that fan base rallied around the push for suicide prevention and raising money and raising awareness for that side of it because of a personal aspect that Zack Snyder brought to it. I was like, ‘there’s a lot more going on here’ . . . I kept digging and digging and digging, and I was putting all this stuff together, and then I realized I think I have a template for a book.”
On March 1, 2021, Sean’s book Release the Snyder Cut hit store shelves.
He quickly went on to write With Great Power in 2022, a detailed look through interviews at how the various film adaptations of Spider-Man came to be.
This same year, however, he decided to tackle a topic on an actor he had never had a chance to interview, and one he probably never would, Bruce Willis.
“Outside of Harrison Ford, I can’t think of a modern movie star who is able to switch gears as often as Bruce Willis did and still have the audience sort of follow him.”
In 2022, the actor behind more than 100 film credits announced he was retiring from the film industry due to the onset of frontotemporal dementia.
Sean would soon craft 288 pages that would encapsulate the role Bruce Willis has played in the film industry and a medium Sean’s loved his whole life.
“Bruce is one of those actors we all grew up knowing and loving, and I wanted to step back, and I wanted this to be an analysis of his career in a way.”
Sean watched all of Bruce Willis’ film credits, including his favorite film, Die Hard.
He studied the actor’s career through film successes, film failures, the actor’s approach to studios, and the industry as a whole.
Though Willis is an actor Sean has only ever seen in passing, he’s an artist whose legacy is one Sean has learned from with every scene.
“I’ve learned to take a better appreciation that other artists take to their craft,” he explained.
Bruce Willis: Celebrating the Cinematic Legacy of an Unbreakable Hollywood Icon was released on June 11th.
