Tag: Keanu Reeves

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‘Atomic Blonde’ Actor Bill Skarsgard Reportedly Joins Keanu Reeves In ‘John Wick 4’

Bill Skarsgard is reportedly in talks with Lionsgate to join the cast of John Wick: Chapter 4. The Swedish actor previously worked with John Wick co-director David Leitch on his action flicks Atomic Blonde and Deadpool 2. Bill is likely best known to audiences for playing the evil child-eating dimensional entity ,Pennywise The Dancing Clown, in New Line Cinema’s feature film adaptation of Stephen King’s It.

The casting news comes from the folks at Collider, who seem to have a close connection to director Chad Stahelski and have previous revealed location/production details on the new sequel.

Skarsgard joins a cast that already consists of Keanu Reeves, Ian McShane, Laurence Fishburne, Lance Reddick, Donnie Yen, Shamier Anderson, and British singer-turned-actress Rina Sawayama. It’s unclear if Halle Berry or Common will return.

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. 

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

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‘Speed Racer’ Actress Christina Ricci Joins ‘The Matrix 4’

The Matrix 4 wrapped months ago and won’t be released until December 22, but a new press kit for the film spotted by Collider has quietly added actress Christina Ricci to the cast. Ricci previously worked with director Lana Wachowski on the anime adaptation Speed Racer in the role of Trixie. Her credits include The Addams Family, Addams Family Values, Casper, Monster, and Sleepy Hollow.

Lana Wachowksi returns to direct a cast that consists of Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Jada Pinkett Smith, Jessica Henwick, Daniel Bernhardt, Priyanka Chopra, Ibarra, Neil Patrick Harris, Toby Onwumere, Brian J. Smith, Eréndira Ibarra, Andrew Caldwell, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, and Ellen Hollman.

There are expectations that The Matrix 4 will launch a second trilogy.

THE MATRIX – Neo (Keanu Reeves) believes that Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne), an elusive figure considered to be the most dangerous man alive, can answer his question — What is the Matrix? Neo is contacted by Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss), a beautiful stranger who leads him into an underworld where he meets Morpheus. They fight a brutal battle for their lives against a cadre of viciously intelligent secret agents. It is a truth that could cost Neo something more precious than his life.

SOURCE: COLLIDER

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‘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

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‘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. 

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Action Star Donnie Yen Joins ‘John Wick 4’ Cast

It looks like we have our first new casting addition to John Wick 4.

Action star Donnie Yen has landed a main role, according to Deadline.

Yen will play an old friend of Reeves’ super assassin John Wick, who shares his same history and many of the same enemies.

Donnie Yen has made for himself coming from the action star lineage, where he does a lot of his own fight and stunt work. Some of his film credits are Blade II, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Hero, IP Man movies, and Highlander: Endgame.

The fourth chapter is expected to see Keanu Reeves’ John Wick and Laurence Fishburne’s The Bowery King going to war with The High Table, the group of mysterious criminal syndicate leaders that control the world of assassins and seemingly most criminal operations as well. There is hope that we’ll see and learn more about The High Table in the next installment.

A portion of the filming of John Wick: Chapter 4 will take place at Germany’s studio facility Babelsberg Film Studio just outside of Berlin in Potsdam.

The iconic German facility where Fritz Lang’s sci-fi masterpiece Metropolis was shot has been used on multiple modern Hollywood productions such as Marvel’s Captain America: Civil War, Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds, David Leitch’s Atomic Blonde, Duncan Jones’ Mute, The Girl In The Spider’s Web, A Cure For Wellness, Eddie The Eagle, Steven Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies, Speed Racer, Cloud Atlas, V For Vendetta, Ninja Assassin, Joe Wright’s Hanna, Michael B. Jordan’s Without Remorse, Lana Wachowski’s Matrix 4, and Tom Holland’s Uncharted.

Franchise star Keanu Reeves was at the European studio last year filming Matrix 4.

We previously mentioned they hired Uncharted stunt coordinator Stephen Dunlevy.

According to Collider, filming will begin this 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.

John Wick: Chapter 4 director Chad Stahelski is also busy with other various projects but Lionsgate wants him to return for John Wick: Chapter 5 (potentially final installment) and has been attached to helm their Highlander reboot that might end up starring Henry Cavill (Mission: Impossible – Fallout, The Witcher, Man of Stell).

The studio plans to expand the John Wick universe with a Starz series, The Continental, focusing on a young version of Winston in New York City during the 1970s and previously hired Underworld director Len Wiseman to tackle their spinoff movie Ballerina written by Shay Hatten.

Lionsgate has given John Wick: Chapter 4 a release date of May 27, 2022.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

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‘Kraven The Hunter’: Sony Approached Keanu Reeves, Brad Pitt, John David Washington & Adam Driver – ‘Spider-Man’ Spinoff Releases January 2023

Yesterday, it was announced that Sony Pictures had selected British actor Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Kick-Ass, Bullet Train, Avengers: Age of Ultron) to lead their latest Spider-Man spinoff film, Kraven The Hunter. The project will focus on Sergei Kravinoff aka Kraven, a Russian aristocrat turned big-game hunter that becomes a major antagonist of Marvel superhero Spider-Man as a member of The Sinister Six and half-brother of fellow villain The Chameleon.

Some of the names rumored for the role were indeed true, as Deadline reporter Justin Kroll tweeted a list of names that Sony Pictures had considered to play Kraven but they had passed. Those high-profile names were Keanu Reeves (John Wick, The Matrix), Brad Pitt (Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, Fight Club, Inglorious Basterds), John David Washington (Tenet), and Adam Driver (House of Gucci, Logan Lucky, Star Wars: The Force Awakens).

However, Aaron Taylor-Johnson reportedly “blew away” Sony brass thanks to footage from his latest project, Bullet Train.

I find it interesting that the latter two actors being co-stars in Spike Lee’s Oscar-winning film BlacKkKlansman, the filmmaker had been attached to make a Nightwatch movie for the studio with a script from Luke Cage showrunner Cheo Hodari Coker.

It’s noteworthy that John David Washington was mentioned in the group, as it could signal back to when Black Panther director Ryan Coogler talked about wanting to use Kraven and the actor’s own comments from the Tenet press tour last year mentioning his desire to play Reed Richards in Marvel’s Fantastic Four reboot from Spider-Man: No Way Home director Jon Watts.

Kraven The Hunter will be directed by J.C. Chandor (A Most Violent Year, Triple Frontier) from a scripted penned by Richard Wenk (The Equalizer, The Expendables 2) with Art Marcum and Matt Holloway tackling rewrites. The duo of screenwriters aren’t strangers to studio genre projects working on Iron Man, Punisher: War Zone, Transformers: The Last Knight, Men In Black: International, and the upcoming Tom Holland video game movie Uncharted.

Sony is attempting to build their own cinematic universe featuring various Spider-Man friends and foes. Some of those upcoming films consist of Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Jared Leto’s vampire flick Morbius, Olivia Wilde’s Spider-Woman movie, and a Madame Web movie. It remains to be seen of these movies will or will not be directly connected to Marvel Studios’ cinematic universe, as hiring the former Quicksilver actor would suggest that Kraven isn’t connected to the hard-canon MCU.

The Spider-Man spinoff has landed a release date of January 13, 2023 from Sony Pictures and suggests that production could begin by 2022.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

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‘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.

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’47 Ronin’ Sequel Set In The World of Cyberpunk Will Be Written By Aimee Garcia & AJ Mendez

Last August, it was reported by Deadline that Universal 1440 and Netflix would be teaming-up for a sequel to the fantasy adventure film 47 Ronin starring Keanu Reeves, Horiyuki Sanada, Tadanobu Asano, Rinko Kikuchi and Ko Shibasaki. The 2013 movie was a fictional Hollywood take on the real-life historical event that took place in Japan during the 18th century.

47 RONIN – In feudal Japan, Lord Asano rules his province with fairness. However, jealous Lord Kira (Tadanobu Asano) fears that the shogun favors Asano over him and hatches a plot that ends with Asano’s ritual suicide. After Asano’s death, his samurai, led by Oishi (Hiroyuki Sanada), are forced to live as outcasts. Oishi wanders for several years but realizes that he must turn to Kai (Keanu Reeves), a mixed-blood warrior he once rejected, to help him and his ronin comrades take revenge on Lord Kira.

The sequel directed by Ron Yaun is said to take place 300 years in the future with a cyberpunk angle. Things such as Blade Runner, Blade Runner 2049, The Matrix Trilogy, Ghost In The Shell, Akira, Upgrade, RoboCop, Total Recall, Dredd, The Terminator, Ready Player One, and Alita: Battle Angel are feature film examples of the cyberpunk genre alongside the recent video game Cyberpunk 2077 (also features Keanu Reeves).

Deadline is back with more information on the creative team as they’ve hired actress Aimee Garcia (M.O.D.O.K., Lucifer) and former WWE wrestler AJ Mendez to write the sequel. The pair are behind the Glow comic book based on the Netflix series that focused on women’s wrestling. They’ve also tackled Dungeons & Dragons for IDW and Wonder Woman for DC Comics.

Production was supposed to take place this year but is looks like they’re still in the development stage with the announcement of these two screenwriters joining the 47 Ronin sequel. It’s unknown if they’ll attempt to wrangle Keanu Reeves for a cameo as he’s about to begin shooting John Wick: Chapter 4 this summer.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

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‘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

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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