EXCLUSIVE: Cinematographer Dan Laustsen Confirmed For ‘John Wick 4’

The Ronin can confirm that cinematographer Dan Laustsen is set to return for John Wick 4 and will reunite with director Chad Stahelski. He previously worked on John Wick: Chapter 2, John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, The Shape of Water, and most recently tackled Guillermo del Toro’s Searchlight Pictures thriller Nightmare Alley that had been finishing up production in Toronto during the pandemic.

Laustsen’s return was assumed but it’s now set in stone as production is about to begin in Germany.

Casting has been underway for John Wick 4 with some impressive new additions joining Keanu Reeves such as Japanese action star Horiyuki Sanada as Watanabe, Hong Kong action star Donnie Yen playing Wick’s old pal, Atomic Blonde’s Bill Skarsgard, Stowaway’s Shamier Anderson, and the film’s female lead played by Japanese-British singer Rina Sawayama. While it’s unknown if we’ll see Asia Kate Dillion, Common or Halle Berry return, franchise stars Laurence Fishburne and Ian McShane are set to reprise their roles.

Blade star Wesley Snipes bad been in discussions for a part in the fourth installment but it reportedly didn’t work out.

John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum ended with John Wick surviving the fall from the roof of The Continental hotel after Ian McShane’s Winston shot him. Winston’s motivations weren’t entirely clear as he didn’t seem shocked that Mr. Wick got away and could be giving The High Table a false sense of security. Wick eventually lands at the feet of Laurence Fishburne’s Bowery King, who had his organization taken away from him by The High Table and convinces John to go to war with him against the mysterious group of criminal syndicate puppet masters. 

The sequel will begin filming soon at Studio Babelsberg just outside Berlin, Germany, where franchise star Keanu Reeves shot The Matrix 4 last year with director Lana Wachowski. Other locations are said to include Paris, New York City, and Japan.

John Wick 4 will hit the big screen on May 27, 2022 and Lionsgate had confirmed plans to make John Wick: Chapter 5, but will no longer shoot back-to-back with the next installment. Franchise creator and architect, Derek Kolstad, stated that he won’t be involved in the next two films and suggested John Wick 5 could be the final pic.

‘John Wick 4’: Wesley Snipes Reportedly Won’t Appear Despite Discussions

John Wick: Chapter 4 is going to begin filming soon at Studio Babelsberg just outside Berlin, Germany, where franchise star Keanu Reeves shot The Matrix 4 last year with director Lana Wachowski.

Well, the casting has been underway for John Wick 4 with some impressive new additions such as Japanese action star Horiyuki Sanada, Hong Kong action star Donnie Yen, Atomic Blonde’s Bill Skarsgard, Stowaway’s Shamier Anderson, and the film’s female lead played by Japanese-British singer Rina Sawayama.

There had been rumblings that Blade star Wesley Snipes was joining the epic fourth installment, however, The Hollywood Reporter’s Borys Kit has now squashed that via Twitter, despite confirming early discussions with Lionsgate.

John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum ended with John surviving the fall from the roof of The Continental hotel after Ian McShane’s Winston shot him, Winston’s motivations weren’t entirely clear as he didn’t seem shocked that Mr. Wick got away and could be giving The High Table a false sense of security. Wick eventually lands at the feet of Laurence Fishburne’s Bowery King, who had his organization taken away from him by The High Table and convinces John to go to war with him against the mysterious group of criminal syndicate puppet masters. 

John Wick 4 will hit the big screen on May 27, 2022 and Lionsgate had confirmed plans to make John Wick: Chapter 5, but will no longer shoot back-to-back with the next installment. Franchise creator and architect, Derek Kolstad, stated that he won’t be involved in the next two films and suggested John Wick 5 could be the final pic.

There is a possibility that director Chad Stahelski will pivot to make his Highlander reboot next (over John Wick 5), which reportedly has Mission: Impossible -Fallout’s Henry Cavill circling an unnamed lead role. The sticking point is that we don’t have an official confirmation from Lionsgate or Stahelski that Highlander is happening anytime soon. Chad making Highlander could certainly give Keanu Reeves a bit of break after the extended shoot for The Matrix 4 took longer than expected due to the pandemic and spending the rest of the year working on John Wick 4.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

‘John Wick 4’: Laurence Fishburne Finally Confirms His Return As The Bowery King

We’ve all been patiently waiting for confirmation that Laurence Fishburne would be reprising the Bowery King role in Chad Stahelski’s John Wick: Chapter 4 and we finally got it from the man himself while speaking with Collider.

“I should be going to Berlin within another couple of months or so,” Fishburne told Collider.

He continued to praise the sequel’s script, “I read the script. It’s really, really cool. As much as it’s the same world as the other three films, it’s just deeper. It’s much deeper in terms of the code of the assassin and the relationship that he has with one character in particular who I think Mr. Watanabe (Collider says is a character, not Ken Watanabe) is playing… is really the heart and soul of it.”

John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum ended with John surviving the fall from the roof of The Continental hotel after Ian McShane’s Winston shot him, Winston’s motivations weren’t entirely clear as he didn’t seem shocked that Mr. Wick got away and could be giving The High Table a false sense of security. Wick eventually lands at the feet of Laurence Fishburne’s Bowery King, who had his organization taken away from him by The High Table and convinces John to go to war with him against the mysterious group of criminal syndicate puppet masters. 

The cast already consists of Keanu Reeves, Ian McShane, Lance Reddick, Donnie Yen, Shamier Anderson, Bill Skarsgard, and British singer-turned-actress Rina Sawayama. It’s unclear if Asia Kate Dillion, Halle Berry or Common will return.

John Wick 4 is on the cusp of starting production at Babelsberg Film Studio in Berlin, Germany and another actor has joined the high-octane action sequel. Other filming locations are said to include Paris and Japan.

Lionsgate has set John Wick 4’s release date for May 27, 2022 and have announced plans to make John Wick: Chapter 5 at some point as well.

SOURCE: COLLIDER

‘John Wick 4’ Cast Adds Canadian Actor Shamier Anderson From Netflix’s ‘Stowaway’

John Wick 4 is on the cusp of starting production at Babelsberg Film Studio in Berlin, Germany and another actor has joined the high-octane action sequel. Other filming locations are said to include Paris and Japan.

John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum ended with John surviving the fall from the roof of The Continential hotel after Ian McShane’s Winston shot him, Winston’s motivations weren’t entirely clear as he didn’t seem shocked that Mr. Wick got away and could be giving The High Table a false sense of security. Wick eventually lands at the feet of Laurence Fishburne’s Bowery King, who had his organization taken away from him by The High Table and convinces John to go to war with him against the mysterious group of criminal syndicate puppet masters. 

Canadian actor Shamier Anderson has reportedly joined the project, according to Deadline. Anderson was most recently seen in the Netflix sci-fi movie Stowaway.

He’ll be joining Keanu Reeves, Ian McShane, Laurence Fishburne, Lance Reddick, Donnie Yen, and Rina Sawayama in the next installment.

Lionsgate has set John Wick 4’s release date for May 27, 2022 and have announced plans to make John Wick: Chapter 5 at some point as well.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

‘John Wick 4’: Singer Rina Sawayama Joins Keanu Reeves & Donnie Yen

John Wick: Chapter 4 is easily going to be one of the most anticipated action films alongside Lana Wachowski’s Matrix 4, both films highlighting the twilight era of Keanu Reeves’ action star status even as he inches closer to his 60s. The John Wick franchise fancies itself as action films made by action guys as director Chad Stahelski went from stuntman to director having extremely close ties with the stunt team, building the action sequences from the ground up and having star Keanu Reeves in training for months behind filming begins. 

A huge nod to the franchise’s action roots was the recent hiring of Hong Kong action star Donnie Yen in a supporting role. Instead of playing another foe, Deadline reports that Yen will play a friend of John Wick with a similar history and could potentially help him take on The High Table. Yen is best known for a multitude of martial arts projects like his Ip Man films alongside Hollywood productions such as Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Guillermo del Toro’s Blade II, and the Vin Diesel sequel xXx: The Return of Xander Cage.

Another interesting addition we missed was Japanese-British singer Rina Sawayama taking a role in the film, as mentioned by Deadline last month.

John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum ended with John surviving the fall from the roof of The Continential hotel after Ian McShane’s Winston shot him, Winston’s motivations weren’t entirely clear as he didn’t seem shocked that Mr. Wick got away and could be giving The High Table a false sense of security. Wick eventually lands at the feet of Laurence Fishburne’s Bowery King, who had his organization taken away from him by The High Table and convinces John to go to war with him against the mysterious group of criminal syndicate puppet masters. 

Production on John Wick: Chapter 4 is said to start this month at Babelsberg Studios in Berlin, Germany with other locations such as Paris and Japan. 

Lionsgate had previously announced a release date of May 27, 2022, and their plans to make John Wick: Chapter 5 at some point. 

‘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.

‘John Wick 4’: Filming Reportedly Begins This June With Locations That Include NYC, Paris, Berlin & Japan – ‘Predators’ Mike Finch Writing It

We’re all anticipating the next installment of the John Wick franchise as John Wick: Chapter 3 ended with Wick agreeing to work with the Bowery King to go to war with The High Table. The powerful shadowy group that oversees the world of assassins that consists of international criminal syndicate leaders.

There is a bit of an update from Collider as they reveal that production is expected to begin this June and named a heap of filming locations for John Wick: Chapter 4. They include Japan, Berlin, Paris, and New York City.

With recent news that franchise creators Derek Kolstad won’t be writing with the next two films, they’ve discovered that Mike Finch (American Assassin, Predators) will be the main writer on the script.

Also, it looks like the film won’t be shooting back-to-back with John Wick: Chapter 5 as previously promised by Lionsgate and it will be just the fourth installment. The studio has given John Wick 4 a release date of May 27th, 2022.

SOURCE: COLLIDER

Creator Derek Kolstad Says He Won’t Be Writing Next Two ‘John Wick’ Films & ‘John Wick 4’ Still Expected To Begin Filming This Spring

We’ve been anticipating the next chapters of the John Wick franchise as Lionsgate has promised that John Wick: Chapter 4 and John Wick: Chapter 5 would be filming back-to-back with Keanu Reeves back in the titular role. Last we saw, Wick agreed to go to war against the High Table (powerful puppet masters of this world of assassins) with Laurence Fishburn’s Bowery King.

In a recent press release from Netflix, about the BRZRKR movie starring Keanu Reeves, they noted that the actor will begin shooting John Wick: Chapter 4 this spring.

Reeves recently completed production on Matrix 4 which will be released later this year. He will begin production on John Wick 4 this Spring. 

Collider has now spoken with the franchise creator and architect, Derek Kolstad. The screenwriter is currently on the promotional press rounds for the Bob Odenkirk action flick Nobody, which is getting some positive buzz from early press screenings. Derek revealed that he actually isn’t working on the next two John Wick films and has seemingly stepped aside.

KOLSTAD: “I’m actually not involved in four and five. At a certain stage of the studio will tell you, your creation is graduated, and you wish it well. I’m still close with Chad, still close with Dave, and I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I’m excited to see.”

“No, it wasn’t my decision. When you think of the contractually of these things, the third one I shared the credit with any number of people, they didn’t have to come back to me, and so they didn’t. At a certain stage the studio will tell you, your creation is graduated, and you wish it well. I’m still close with Chad (Stahelski), still close with David (Leitch), and I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I’m excited to see.”

Derek Kolstad is working on a maddening amount of projects as he recently worked on Marvel’s hit streaming series The Falcon & The Winter Soldier on Disney+, he’s also working on a live-action Dungeons & Dragons series and a live-action film based on the anime/manga Hellsing, among many other things.

The world of John Wick is expected to be built-out in the not too distant future from beyond the main films with Len Wiseman’s spinoff movie Ballerina and the Starz series The Continental, about the assassin hotel.

SOURCE: COLLIDER & NETFLIX

Netflix Adapting Keanu Reeves’ Comic ‘BRZRKR’ Into Live-Action Film & Anime Series – Reeves To Star In Both

Yesterday, Netflix announced they’ll be boarding the Keanu Reeves train as they’ve made a deal to adapt the BOOM! Studios/Reeves comic book BRZRKR for a live-action film and anime series as a follow-up afterwards. Reeves himself will, of course, star in both projects with the latter lending his voice.

BRZRKR is a brutally epic saga about an immortal warrior’s 80,000 year 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 earth 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.

The anime series will further expand the BRZRKR universe by exploring different elements of the story. In the series, Reeves will reprise his role and voice his character. 

Keanu is coming off a shoot for Matrix 4 aka Matrix Resurrections at Warner Bros. with John Wick: Chapter 4 and John Wick: Chapter 5 on the horizon. While Lionsgate has suggested their plan is to film the next two John Wick installments back-to-back. There is a good chance John Wick: Chapter 5 will be the final film according to franchise creator Derek Kolstad.

Developing another action franchise at Netflix seems like the choice move there for Reeves.

SOURCE: NETFLIX

‘John Wick 4’: Ian McShane Believes Sequel Will Begin Shooting This Year

Collider was able to speak with John Wick franchise actor Ian McShane and he revealed the fourth installment is still expected to begin filming this year. You might remember there had been production delays on John Wick: Chapter 4 because the extended shoot for The Matrix 4 with Keanu Reeves reprising the Neo role.

MCSHANE: “Keanu [Reeves] and I exchanged New Year’s greetings and said, ‘Hope to see you this year.’ I know the script is being written and they’re hoping to do it this year. I know they announced they were gonna do [John Wick 4] and [John Wick 5] together, but who knows. The studios announce all sorts of things. No doubt, at some point this year, we’re gonna do John Wick 4.”

Ian McShane plays Winston, who in the last film seemingly turned on John shooting him off the roof of The Continental, only for him to survive the fall and brought to the hideout of the Bowery King agreeing to go to war with The High Table. It remains to be seen if Winston actually tried to kill him (didn’t look shocked when told Wick lived) or if he was trying to remove him from further pursuit from The High Table and the price on his head.

Lionsgate had set the film’s release for May 27th, 2022 but it could be moved depending on when production actually starts.

SOURCE: COLLIDER