Lionsgate Chairman Confirms ‘John Wick 5’ In Development & Teases More Wickaverse Films

This month the “John Wick” franchise has earned an impressive $1 billion at the global box office, which is a huge achievement given the R-rated franchise has been able to increasingly grow it’s audience which each installment. The studio is already working on a handful of spinoffs but finally confirmed that a fifth installment is going ahead.

During a Lionsgate earnings call via SlashFilm, studio chairman Joseph Drake has revealed that “John Wick 5” is indeed in development and suggests even more films are coming beyond the sequel and the spinoff “Ballerina,” starring Oscar-nominee Ana de Armas.

“We’re in development on 3 others, including [John Wick 5] and including a television series, ‘The Continental,’ will be airing soon. And so we’re building out the world and when that 5 movie comes, will be an organic — will be organically grown out of how we’re starting to tell those stories. But you can rely on regular cadence with John Wick.”

On the film side, Drake stopped short of revealing what what is coming other than “Ballerina” and “John Wick 5.” However, given how “John Wick 4” ended there is an expectation we could be seeing a film about Rina Sawayama‘s Akira or Donnie Yen’s Cane as a end credit scene teases that those two will finally come to blows. There had also been previous calls from fans to give Halle Berry‘s Sofia from “John Wick 3” her own film too and Laurence Fishburne‘s Bowery King could be further explored alongside other side characters.

Keanu Reeves will appear in “Ballerina” as that film takes place in during the six months between the third and fourth movies as Wick recovers from his injuries. That spinoff is set to be released in theaters with a prime summer date of June 7, 2024.

When it comes to “John Wick 5” the last film ***SPOILER ALERT*** seemingly kills John off-screen. Although, nothing says they didn’t fake his death potentially to avoid further retribution. Then again, if Wick is indeed dead another way to go would be hand off the franchise to Ana de Armas’ Rooney, who just happens to be another assassin from the Ruska Roma. Originally, it was said that the fourth and fifth film would be shot back-to-back but that ultimately didn’t happen.

We’re unsure when exactly “John Wick 5” might begin shooting as director Chad Stahelski is likely going to pursue one of his many other films in development such as the “Highlander” reboot and his samurai flick “Ghost of Tsushima” for Sony Pictures based on the acclaimed PlayStation video game.

SOURCE: LIONSGATE

Halle Berry Confirms Sofia Won’t Return For ‘John Wick 4’ & Teases A Possible Spinoff Movie

While there are a lot of returning cast members from the John Wick franchise appearing in John Wick 4, Halle Berry’s badass character Sofia won’t be reuniting with Keanu Reeves in the upcoming installment.

Berry is on the promotional rounds for her directorial debut Bruised, a Netflix sports drama seeing the actress play an MMA fighter. She revealed to IGN during an interview that while Sofia won’t be showing up in the next film, a spinoff film could be in the cards.

“There could possibly be a Sofia…her own movie. So she might not be in John Wick, but she might be doing her own thingy-thingy,” Berry told IGN.

Lionsgate has yet to announce plans for a Sofia movie and this could be a new revelation from Berry.

John Wick spinoffs are already in the works with the prequel series The Continental at Starz, and a feature film called Ballerina led by Cuban actress Ana de Armas (Blade Runner 2049, No Time To Die) with director Len Wiseman (Live Free r Die Hard, Underworld) behind the camera.

You might remember that during the Pierce Brosnan era of the James Bond franchise, her character Jinx from Die Another Day was supposed to land a spinoff film, but that ultimately never happened as producers focused on rebooting 007 with Daniel Craig’s Casino Royale.

John Wick 4 was recently bumped to a release date of March 24, 2023.

SOURCE: IGN

‘Uncharted’ Stunt Coordinator Stephen Dunlevy Confirmed For ‘John Wick 4’

The Ronin can confirm that John Wick: Chapter 4 will see Stephen Dunlevy as the sequel’s stunt coordinator as people are being assembled for the production team. As previously mentioned, director Chad Stahelski returns with Keanu Reeves set to reprise his badass role as the Baba Yaga aka John Wick.

In last installment, we saw John Wick and The Bowery King (played by Laurence Fishburne) make an alliance to got to war against The High Table, the international group of criminal puppet masters who control the world of assassins.

JOHN WICK 3 – After gunning down a member of the High Table — the shadowy international assassin’s guild — legendary hit man John Wick finds himself stripped of the organization’s protective services. Now stuck with a $14 million bounty on his head, Wick must fight his way through the streets of New York as he becomes the target of the world’s most ruthless killers.

Stephen isn’t a stranger to the John Wick franchise as he worked with 87Eleven Action Design and played goons that were dispensed in John Wick 2-3. He most recently was in Berlin,Germany as the stunt coordinator on Tom Holland’s video game action flick Uncharted and the assistant stunt coordinator on Lana Wachowski’s Matrix 4. The Aussie stuntman also appeared in George Miller’s action-heavy Mad Max: Fury Road in a couple of roles and played X-Men villain Angelo Macon (member of The Reavers) in James Mangold’s Logan.

We’ll keep our fingers crossed that Halle Berry’s Sofia Al-Azwar will be making a return, which sounds like a strong possibility.

According to Collider, filming will begin next month with locations to include New York City, Paris, Berlin, and Japan. They added that Mike Finch (American Assassin, Predators) will be the main writer on the script after Derek Kolstad revealed he wouldn’t be writing the next two chapters.

Mike Finch co-wrote the Lionsgate genre action flick Arcana that has Chad Stahelski attached to direct. The many other projects being developed by Chad include a feature film based on the samurai video game Ghost of Tsushima for Sony Pictures, a New Line Cinema film titled Classified described as Die Hard meets Indiana Jones, will produce a remake of The Man From Nowhere, an untitled car action movie for Paramount, and has been attached for ages to Lionsgate’s reboot of the Highlander franchise.

Lionsgate is set to release John Wick: Chapter 4 on May 27, 2022 and the studio has talked-up plans to make a John Wick: Chapter 5, franchise creator Derek Kolstad has suggested that Chapter 5 could be the final film.

That won’t be the last we’ll see of this world as Starz is moving forward with a prequel series that focuses on the NYC hotel The Continental with a young version of Winston set during in the 1970s. Lionsgate previously hired Underworld director Len Wiseman to tackle their John Wick spinoff movie Ballerina written by Shay Hatten.

Roland Emmerich Announces His Sci-Fi Film ‘Moonfall’ Has Started Production and Reunites With ‘Midway’ Cinematographer

Today, director Roland Emmerich has announced via Twitter that his latest sci-fi project Moonfall has started filming and posted a teaser image that also revealed that he will be reuniting with Midway cinematographer Robby Baumgartner (Blindspotting, The Guest) and production designer Kirk M. Petruccelli (The Incredible Hulk, Ghost Rider).

Production is currently taking place in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, the province happens to be the nation’s COVID-19 hot-spot and there is a possibility that the country/Quebec could shut down for a second time leading to delays.

Moonfall’s cast consists of Patrick Wilson (Aquaman, The Conjuring, Watchmen), Halle Berry (X-Men, John Wick 3), Stanley Tucci (Captain America: The First Avenger), John Bradley (Game of Thrones), and Charlie Plummer.

Deadline adds that legendary Canadian actor Donald Sutherland (Ad Astra, Invasion of The Body Snatchers, The Hunger Games franchise) and Eme Ikwuakor (Inhumans) are rounding out the cast of the film said to be budgeted between $100-120 million.

A mysterious force knocks the Moon from its orbit around Earth and send it hurtling on a collision course with life as we know it. With only weeks before impact, a ragtag team launches a last-ditch mission into space to land on the lunar surface and save the planet from annihilation.

Director Roland Emmerich is no stranger to genre with credits that include Universal Soldier, Stargate, Independence Day, and Godzilla.

Lionsgate is expected to release Moonfall sometime in 2022.

SOURCE: ROLAND EMMERICH

Halle Berry’s First Directorial Effort ‘Bruised’ Heading To Netflix – The MMA Drama Picked Up In Big Eight-Figure Deal

Deadline reports that Netflix has secured Halle Berry’s directorial debut Bruised with an eight-figure deal. They state the deal is for under $20 million which is extremely impressive for a festival pick-up and could speak volumes for the quality of the film after Netflix got an early look at it before a work-in-progress is set to premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. 

Jackie Justice (Berry) is a disgraced MMA fighter who has failed at the one thing she’s ever been good at – fighting. When 6-year-old Manny, the son she walked out on years ago, returns to her doorstep, Jackie has to conquer her own demons, face one of the fiercest rising stars of the MMA world, and ultimately fight to become the mother the boy deserves. The film is a Rocky-esque story of redemption, of a woman’s grueling MMA training in New Jersey to get into the kind of shape necessary to battle much younger opponents.

Berry is an Oscar-winning actress best known globally for the X-Men films, the James Bond flick Die Another Day, and won her Best Actress Oscar for the drama Monster’s Ball. More recently Halle got a bit of a career boost from her supporting role in John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum and is now taking a directorial crown as well with Bruised. 

It sounds like she has a huge directorial career ahead of her. 

SOURCE: DEADLINE 

Roland Emmerich’s Sci-Fi Disaster Film ‘Moonfall’ Adds Patrick Wilson – Eyes Fall Start In Montreal

After previously landing cast members such as Oscar-winner Halle Berry (John Wick: Chapter 3) and Josh Gad, The Hollywood Reporter has exclusively revealed that Patrick Wilson (Aquaman, Watchmen, The Conjuring) and Christopher Plummer (All The Money In The World) has also taken roles in Roland Emmerich’s upcoming science-fiction disaster film Moonfall.

Moonfall sees its plot go into action when the moon is knocked from its orbit by a mysterious force and is on a collision course with Earth. With just weeks to go before impact, a ragtag team is sent on a seemingly impossible mission to land on the lunar surface and save humanity.

They also add some information on their characters. 

Wilson will play a disgraced former NASA astronaut whose last mission, which ended in tragedy, holds a clue about the impending catastrophe. Plummer will play his teenage son.

Moonfall is also reportedly eyeing a fall production start in Montreal. 

We’ve learned that they have added production designer Kirk M. Petruccelli (Blade, The Incredible Hulk, Ghost Rider), who previously worked with Roland on his WWII film Midway. 

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER