Outdoor pursuit

Eric Bana and director Robert Connolly talk about why detective mystery The Dry 2 is much wetter than their hit original. 

-  RUSSELL BAILLIE

Most days, actor Eric Bana director-producer and Robert Connolly are at their office in Melbourne, a building they bought and renovated and where Connolly admits to being a bit slack about emptying the dishwasher. It's not a formal partnership. They just enjoy having another Australian screen industry veteran within cooee.

"It's a really lonely business when you're not actually working. You're really siloed," says Bana. "There was never any pressure to make films together. We just enjoy each other's company and having someone to bounce ideas off." Some time in the late 2010s, one such office conversation went something like this: "I've been asked to direct The Dry." "Really? My wife said that book's great.

Can I be in it?" "Sure. Do you fancy a coffee?" Fast forward a few years and one box office hit later, and today, the pair are in a Sydney hotel room, hunched over a single computer talking to the Listener. It's the morning after the premiere of Force of Nature: The Dry 2.

When released in early 2021, despite cinemas still being no-go zones for many because of the pandemic, The Dry became a box office hit on both sides of the Tasman. This was helped by the presence of Bana, who was a comedy star at home in the 1990s before Hollywood came calling after his performance as a notorious Melbourne crook in Chopper.

For Bana, starring as Aaron Falk in a film based on the first of Jane Harper's three novels that centre on a white-collar crime federal detective, was a rare lead in an Australian production. Even rarer for him is starring in a sequel.