Tag: John Wick 5

Posted on in Film News, News

Chad Stahelski Not Looking To Resurrect John Wick For A “Cash-Grab” But Has Notebooks Filled With Ideas For Another Five Movies

Sometimes franchises stall or simply end. The popular “John Wick” movies are certainly in a very odd place with “John Wick 4” seemingly killing off our skilled protagonist (that taking place off-screen) and while the head of Lionsgate keeps telling the public they’re working on “John Wick 5” it doesn’t seem like that is happening anytime soon, potentially at all.

Director Chad Stahelski, who tackled all four installments, recently spoke with Inverse detailing that the ambiguity of the death of John was done on purpose and ties back to the mythology/fairytale angle they had been aiming for with the franchise.

“We just rationalize that any Greek hero like Odysseus or anybody else over a long enough timeline, every story’s a tragedy. The hero always dies. You just don’t know when. And we also know if you’re a bad guy, you do bad things, bad things happen to you. That’s just the way it goes. So, we always had that hard, hardboiled sensibility. And we got done with 3, and we kind of knew when we were doing the press tour, we’re like, ‘Fuck. We didn’t really end it. We didn’t stick the landing.’ And we had a couple of ideas. And Keanu and I put some things together, and that’s how we built No. 4: ‘OK, this is the swan song.'”

Keanu Reeves ist John Wick: Alter schützt vor Kugeln nicht

Still, it’s not like Chad and Keanu are saying a fifth installment or more is completely off the table. Stahelski brings up Reeves being game for another one alongside having notebooks full of ideas for another five films (maybe an exaggeration) but waiting for the right “idea” that clicks to get the two of them back. Rather than simply doing another installment because they want to make money from it.

“I have notebooks and notebooks of shit behind me, John Wicks 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. We have ideas for days. We just don’t have the story locked. I have no interest in doing the cash grab of bringing John Wick back for something. Is he a character I like? Of course. And if I did a couple of John Wick movies, great. Keanu would do one again in a second if we had a good story. We leave that open-ended. I know that the studio would love us to say we have another one.”

I wouldn’t be terribly shocked if they had killed John Wick, the myth. Allowing John, the man, to potentially live a peaceful life somewhere else away from the grip of The High Table and retribution for all the killing he’s been doing. However, if they did another installment something would have to drag him back What exactly that could be is indeed a head-scratcher.

John Wick 4's Donnie Yen wants to spin-off Caine

The filmmaker also commented on Lionsgate’s interest in spinoffs like next summer’s “Ballerina” starring Ana de Armas as Rooney, taking place between the events of “John Wick 3” and “John Wick 4” with Reeves set to appear in the action pic. The end of the recent film indicated that they could do another untitled spinoff featuring Donnie Yen’s Caine and Rina Sawayama’s Akira, with the latter seeking revenge for the death of her father in Osaka.

“Keanu and I are always interested in that, but we leave it hanging out there a little bit to figure out if we have something that we’d want to watch. Second, we have a studio that’s very enthusiastic and not just financially motivated, but they’re just interested in seeing what we could do with it. So, they’ve been super cool of us this year about branching off. I know the term is ‘spin-offs’ or ‘ancillaries’ or whatever you want to call it. Keanu and I both went back, and we all said, ‘Look, we have ideas for the John Wick world, other characters that aren’t John Wick-centric. Would you guys be interested in exploring that?’ And they were super cool, and they said, ‘Yes, we’d be very interested in that.’ Characters that weren’t in any of the movies that had fallen to the sidelines because they just didn’t fit in our storylines, and some existing characters that we’d like to see other things.”

Giving everyone involved some breathing room is likely a good idea creatively. Keanu Reeves likely wants to do other things and Stahelski is attached to helm multiple other films such as Lionsgate’s reboot of “Highlander” that has Henry Cavill attached alongside his samurai pic “Ghost of Tsushima” (based on the video game) for Sony Pictures. Perhaps, they’ll reunite for more “John Wick” movies but it does sound like they’re also open to the idea of simply moving on as well.

SOURCE: INVERSE

Posted on in Features, Film News

Keanu Reeves Down To Make ‘John Wick 5’ According To Chad Stahelski But The Director Needs A Good Idea/Thread To Avoid Treating The Audience “Like Idiots”

**** WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD FOR ‘JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4’****

Keanu Reeves and director Chad Stahelski have put together quite an entertaining group of action films with the four installments of the “John Wick” franchise. Earlier in the year, “John Wick 4” ended up becoming the highest-grossing film in the batch which is likely why it’s a bit puzzling why the team decided to end “Chapter 4” with the way they did. If you haven’t seen the film, there is a duel in Paris that is assumed to have left John dead from multiple gunshot wounds. While we do see Winston looking down at John’s grave, we don’t actually see the master assassin die on camera, or his body laid to rest for that matter. Potentially, this could have been a constructed way to both end the films there or leave a hypothetical window open for Wick’s “resurrection” in a couple of years by stating the coffin was empty with Wick going off to rest/recover in peace away from The High Table after settling his debt to them.

Despite earlier plans to shoot both “John Wick 4” and “John Wick 5” back-to-back in Germany, they ultimately only made one film and gave everyone involved an out if they truly wanted it. Stahelski recently spoke about the sequel to Josh Horowitz on his podcast (Horowitz suggests we follow Wick into the afterlife/purgatory), Happy Sad Confused, where it was explained that while Keanu Reeves would happily make another one, the director is a bit more apprehensive about it and says waiting for a good reason/idea before jumping into production is key. Citing his worry that it could be seen as treating the loyal audience like idiots for doing a death fake-out.

“If you asked [Keanu] right now, he’d say ‘fuck yeah.’ But, then he’d look and go ‘Well, what is it? I have no fucking clue.’ Look man, we’re going to do our other stuff for a little bit but if…an idea hit me within 30 seconds I’d be on the phone with Keanu and we’d be riffing. We have a lot of set pieces. We have a lot of ideas that didn’t go or we didn’t do. I have no doubt we’ve come up with a lot of great [action} pieces, its just what’s the main thread?…But if we found that moment and found that thread, yeah. I don’t think you’d find anyone invovled with ‘John Wick’ that wouldn’t want to do another one,” the director told Horowitz.

Stahelski still has his own concerns about rushing into it as he brings up the ambiguity of the western “Shane,” where the audience isn’t exactly sure if the hero actually has died, but it’s assumed he has. While also harping on the fact they haven’t cracked a great idea for that return and likely would hinge on that aspect before moving forward.

“I don’t think we bring John Wick back without a real reason. It can’t just be a hook, it’s got to draw people back in. Cause I think most of the audience would like to see Keanu back they just don’t want to be treated like they’re idiots. They don’t want to be treated like ‘Gimmie your fourteen bucks and we’ll bring back the dude to shoot people in the head.’ I’m part of the audience and I would feel ripped off if I did something like that. None of us are opposed to doing five but we just don’t know how to do it, we’re not that smart.”

Interestingly enough, the upcoming spinoff film “Ballerina” starring Ana de Armas and helmed by Len Wiseman (“Underworld”) sidesteps this issue as it takes place between the end of “John Wick 3” and the start of “John Wick 4” allowing for characters like Charon and Wick to appear despite their on-screen deaths (many of us are still mourning Lance Riddick’s tragic off-screen death). There could be room to go back into John’s past with the Ruska Roma and explore those events, even if that means hiring a younger actor to fill Keanu’s shoes. What “John Wick 5” ends up looking like might depend heavily on how audiences receive things like “Ballerina” and potentially other spinoffs like the one teased with the end credit scene telegraphing an Akira-centric movie that possibly sees her attempt revenge against Caine for killing her father in Osaka.

It’s also worth pointing out that “other stuff” Stahelski mentions is an ever-growing number of unmade film projects he’s previously attached himself to over the years that he wants to make before tackling a “John Wick 5.” Some of those that standouts include a reboot of the “Highlander” franchise with British actor Henry Cavill still attached for a key role, the “Rainbow Six” movie at Paramount that would see Michael B. Jordan reprise the role of C.I.A. operator John Clark, and another ambitious project, a feature film adaptation of the samurai PlayStation video game, “Ghost of Tsushima.” The latter would see an all-Asian cast with the hopes that it could be done mainly in the Japanese language.

You can watch/listen to that full interview below.

SOURCE: HAPPY SAD CONFUSED PODCAST

Posted on in Film News, News

‘Highlander’ Reboot: Chad Stahelski Says Henry Cavill Still Attached & Aims To Build Up To The Gathering Of Immortals With World-Building

Director Chad Stahelski has been doing wonders for the action film community with a quadrilogy of superb films with the “John Wick” franchise starring Canadian action star Keanu Reeves. He’s coming off the massive success of “John Wick: Chapter 4” not only making coins at the box office but also being hailed as a great action film by audiences and critics alike. However, that’s not the only project brewing over at Lionsgate with the filmmaker.

While speaking with Josh Horowitz on his podcast, Happy Sad Confused (See below) he reveals that his long-in-development reboot of the “Highlander” franchise is not only still in the works at Lionsgate but actor Henry Cavill (“Mission: Impossible – Fallout,” “The Witcher”) is indeed still attached for an unnamed role in the sci-fi adventure pic.

“I think we have some very good elements now. The trick is when you have the tagline ‘there can only be one’, you can’t just kill everybody the first time. I’ll say it for you first, our story engages a lot of the same characters and stuff like that, but we’ve also brought in elements of all the TV shows, and we’re trying to do a bit of a prequel, a setup to The Gathering, so we have room to grow the property.”

If you’re not familiar with the “Highlander” films or shows, it focuses on a group of immortals that seek each other out to fight for “the prize” (being granted morality to live a regular life) and others are less interested in that by killing as many fellow immortals as they can to boost their powers/abilities with each encounter with The Quickening. When the power of a killed immortal is applied to another immortal via lightning strikes, making them more powerful and lengthening their immortality.

The director has previously talked up the idea of combining the film and television mythology, which they have done with the latter sequels. Taking a crack at focusing on world-building and then going into The Gathering, where immortals are steered towards each other to battle to the death until one. The main crux of the franchise line is: “There can be only one.” A troublesome aspect of the first film is that it ends with Connor winning the prize and leading to bizarre aspects to bring back other immortals from the past or other planets for subsequent sequels sort of shooting themselves in the foot isn’t something that Stahelski is interested in here with his incarnation.

Cavill, for his part, had recently exited the Netflix fantasy series “The Witcher” where you guessed it, he swung a sword for multiple seasons. It’s still unclear if Cavill would play hero or mentor in the reboot, but it’s starting to sound like we could be seeing both Connor MacLeod (Christopher Lambert’s role) and Duncan MacLeod (the main character from the first television series) in this reboot. Tapping into the duo of the “Scottish” cousins could be a good way to move past the alien stuff that was introduced in “Highlander II: The Quickening” and try to focus more on immortals simply happening among the human population, not to mention their human observers, The Watchers.

Sadly, this isn’t the only film in the works for Stahelski as he is also looking to make a live-action film at Sony Pictures based on the hit samurai video game “Ghost of Tsushima,” a sequel in the John Clark franchise with “Rainbow Six” starring Michael B. Jordan in the follow-up to “Without Remorse,” a Netflix feature film based on the pulp novels “Black Samurai,” an urban fantasy film called “Arcana” from the writers of “Predators,” and is hypothetically open to the idea of returning for “John Wick 5” if they come up with the right idea for it.

We’ll have to continue to be patient about future updates concerning “Highlander.”

SOURCE: HAPPY SAD CONFUSED PODCAST

Posted on in Film News, News

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

Posted on in Film News, News

‘BRZRKR’: Keanu Reeves Reveals That They’ve Hired ‘The Batman’ Screenwriter Mattson Tomlin For His Violent Comic Book Movie

Keanu Reeves is currently shooting John Wick 4, but is also lining up future projects including a feature film adaptation of his newly released Boom! Studios comic book, BRZRRK, that was picked-up by Netflix.

Here is the official press for the comic book.

BOOM! Studios is proud to announce BRZRKR, a twelve-issue limited series from the iconic Keanu Reeves in his Must Read comic book writing debut alongside New York Times bestselling co-writer Matt Kindt (Folklords, Bang!) and acclaimed artist Ron Garney (Wolverine, Captain America), colorist Bill Crabtree (BRPD), and letterer Clem Robins (Hellboy) in a brutally violent new series about one immortal warrior’s fight through the ages.

The man known only as B. is half-mortal and half-God, cursed and compelled to violence…even at the sacrifice of his sanity. But after wandering the world for centuries, B. may have finally found a refuge – working for the U.S. government to fight the battles too violent and too dangerous for anyone else. In exchange, B. will be granted the one thing he desires – the truth about his endless blood-soaked existence…and how to end it.

Reeves has given Collider a tiny development update on the BRZRKR film, revealing they’ve landed screenwriter Mattson Tomlin to tackle the script for the live-action film. Tomslin previously worked on The Batman with director Matt Reeves, the Netflix film Project Power, a Mega Man movie, and is developing an anime series set within the Terminator universe for the streaming service.

“We’re working on trying to set up a company with the animation and we’ve hired a writer for the film Mattson Tomlin. He’s been cool and just starting to put things together. That’s where we’re at.”

A director has yet to be announced but we’re hopeful that a seasoned filmmaker with action chops lands the gig. Given that they’ve just started developing a script there isn’t likely a production start in mind and unlikely conflicts with plans for John Wick 5 or potential Matrix sequels.

SOURCE: COLLIDER

Posted on in Film News, News

‘Shibumi’: Warner Bros. & ‘John Wick’ Franchise Director Chad Stahelski Team For Period Assassin Thriller

Director Chad Stahelski is currently in production on John Wick: Chapter 4 in Germany, but the action director isn’t slowing down as he’s attached to yet another project. Deadline reports that Warner Bros. and Stahhelski are teaming to develop a feature film adaptation of Trevanian’s 1979 novel Shibumi.

“Nicholai Hel is the world’s most wanted man. Born in Shanghai during the chaos of World War I, he is the son of an aristocratic Russian mother and a mysterious German father and is the protégé of a Japanese Go master. Hel survived the destruction of Hiroshima to emerge as the world’s most artful lover and its most accomplished—and well-paid—assassin. Hel is a genius, a mystic, and a master of language and culture, and his secret is his determination to attain a rare kind of personal excellence, a state of effortless perfection known only as shibumi.”

“Now living in an isolated mountain fortress with his exquisite mistress, Hel is unwillingly drawn back into the life he’d tried to leave behind when a beautiful young stranger arrives at his door, seeking help and refuge. It soon becomes clear that Hel is being tracked by his most sinister enemy—a supermonolith of international espionage known only as the Mother Company. The battle lines are drawn: ruthless power and corruption on one side, and on the other . . . shibumi.”

The book made a brief cameo in the original John Wick as the airport security guard is spotted reading it, the story likely had a direct influence on the world of high-end assassins inhabited by John Wick and could be an excellent follow-up once Stahelski completes John Wick: Chapter 5, said to be the final installment.

A previous incarnation of Shibumi had Keanu Reeves attached, but no actors are currently involved with it. Its period setting could help separate it from the more modern John Wick films.

Interestingly enough, American author Don Winslow penned another Nicholai Hel book called Satori and could give Warner Bros. source material for another film leading to a new franchise.

“It is the fall of 1951, and the Korean War is raging. Twenty-six-year-old Nicholai Hel has spent the last three years in solitary confinement at the hands of the Americans. Hel is a master of hoda korosu, or “naked kill,” is fluent in seven languages, and has honed extraordinary “proximity sense”-an extra-awareness of the presence of danger. He has the skills to be the world’s most fearsome assassin and now the CIA needs him.”

“The Americans offer Hel freedom, money, and a neutral passport in exchange for one small service: to go to Beijing and kill the Soviet Union’s commissioner to China. It’s almost certainly a suicide mission, but Hel accepts. Now he must survive chaos, violence, suspicion, and betrayal while trying to achieve his ultimate goal of satori-the possibility of true understanding and harmony with the world.”

It might be a long time before we ultimately see Shibumi hit the big screen.

John Wick 5 isn’t the only project Stahelski is also involved with as Lionsgate’s Highlander reboot is one of them with Henry Cavill in talks for a lead role, Sony Pictures has assigned him to helm a feature adaptation of their popular samurai video game Ghost of Tsushima, and the New Line Cinema hybrid action movie Classified (called Die Hard meets Indiana Jones).

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

‘John Wick 4’ and ‘John Wick 5’ Expected To Shoot Back-To-Back According To Lionsgate

Mr. Wick is coming back for two more movies!

Earlier in the year, John Wick creator Derek Kolstad suggested that John Wick: Chapter 5 could be the final installment of the franchise, it looks like Lionsgate is indeed moving forward with that installment much sooner than we had expected. 

On the Lionsgate earnings call yesterday (via The Hollywood Reporter), CEO Jon Feltheimer revealed their current plan is to hopefully shoot both John Wick: Chapter 4 and John Wick: Chapter 5 back-to-back. 

Hinting they could both begin production next year depending on Keanu’s schedule. 

FELTHEIMER: “We’re also busy preparing scripts for the next two installments of our John Wick action franchise, with John Wick 4 slated to hit theaters Memorial Day weekend 2022. We hope to shoot both John Wick 4 and 5 back-to-back when Keanu becomes available early next year.”

This is likely due to the delays on John Wick 4 after Keanu’s filming of Matrix 4 happened to land squarely during the pandemic and production was ultimately paused until recently where it seemingly has resumed in Germany. 

It would be expected that both director Chad Stahelski and Keanu Reeve are returning for John Wick 5. 

Pushing forward with John Wick 5 is likely more of a way to finalize the franchise and making sure they have everything tied up in a nice bow, the extra development time during the pandemic also possibly led to the fifth installment being pushed into script phases. Another reason could be to essentially shoot it as one big movie and save production costs. 

Filming on John Wick: Chapter 4 is expected to begin sometime next year once Keanu completes his work on Matrix 4 and the studio recently gave it a new release date of May 27th, 2022. 

The fourth installment is expected to see John (Reeves) and The Bowery King (Fishburne) going to war with The High Table, the mysterious group that controls their violent world of assassins. 

This would further delay Chad’s Highlander reboot as well. 

Lionsgate is also looking to expand the franchise with spinoffs including a Starz series titled The Continental and Len Wiseman’s upcoming female-led action flick Ballerina both directly set in the world of John Wick. 

SOURCE: LIONSGATE