Today, Lionsgate made it official (via Variety) that their next “John Wick” franchise spinoff film will focus on Donnie Yen‘s standout character from “John Wick 4,” Caine. This project’s announcement isn’t exactly a shocking turn of events as it was first teased at the end of the last “John Wick” installment when it looked like Akira was about to get her revenge on the blind assassin after killing her father at the Osaka Continental.
Robert Askins (“The Umbrella Academy”) is writing the developing action pic with plans for filming to begin sometime next year in Yen’s homestead of Hong Kong. Presumably, the idea is to shoot in Hong Kong, not only as a new location in the Wick-a-verse to explore but also would likely be a more comfortable production stay for the film’s star as well, compared to Germany or NYC.
We’ll have to wait for a director to be named, as one isn’t mentioned at this time.
When we’re first introduced to Caine, he’s a bit of a reluctant pursuer of Wick. However, he, like many other characters in the franchise, is beholden to The High Table to keep his daughter safe from harm. It’ll be interesting to see if the Triads will play a role in this spinoff, given the Hong Kong location would be a perfect excuse to explore that criminal syndicate, who are expected to have a seat at The High Table.
Caine is pretty much another shade of John Wick, although being blind adds an extra element to his action sequences. He’s also an obvious homage to the likes of the beloved cinematic Japanese swordsman, Zatoichi, a samurai franchise character who is incredibly skilled and is most often underestimated by strangers he encounters.
The yet-to-be-titled film isn’t the only spinoff movie on the horizon as “Ballerina” starring Ana de Armas and Norman Reedus, is expected to debut next summer after some extended reshoots in Budapest with the franchise’s new overseer, Chad Stahelski, deeply involved.
The 1994 film “The Crow” was one of the first dark/gritty comic book films alongside Wesley Snipes’ “Blade” that helped to show studios and audiences that these superhero properties could be tailored for a mature audience with bitchin’ soundtracks as well and not just help sell toys/lunch boxes in the 1990s. The story mainly focuses on a slain musician and his activist girlfriend on Devil’s Night only to be resurrected a year later to enact revenge on his killers and the gangsters that ordered their murders. It became so popular that it spawned three other feature films with diminishing quality and returns, the second one “The Crow: City of Angels,” set in Los Angeles, and having rockstar Iggy Pop as a villain is maybe the most noteworthy of the batch with a solid soundtrack to boot. A Canadian television series “The Crow: Stairway To Heaven” attempted to finally bring back Brandon Lee‘s (Who tragically died in hospital after a firearms stunt gone wrong) Eric Draven with Mark Dacascos (“John Wick 3”) recast in the role but didn’t last too long. A new attempt at a feature film would eventually try to wiggle its way back to the big screen after multiple years of development and different actors/creatives getting involved.
Lionsgate has acquired the new film from director Rupert Sanders (“Ghost In The Shell”) and stars Swedish actor Bill Skarsgård (“John Wick 4”) as the newest version of Draven. Vanity Fair was able to release a batch of first-look images (See below) from the new film revealing their take on the undead anti-hero. Which obviously is taking more inspiration from modern musicians than the 80-90s goth and rock scenes the comic and film pulled took from. The rest of the cast includes FKA twigs, Laura Birn, Danny Huston, Jordan Bolger, and others.
Considering this is a modern incarnation of the James O’Barr limited comic book series that was originally published in 1989, the look of the Draven from the first film had originally taken inspiration from goth and rock bands of the 80/90s. Of course, with a remake it was expected “The Crow” could shift the look/design from those previous versions into something that would feel more comtempary to audiences. Seemingly taking a page from folks like Post Malone more than Jared Leto’s Joker, who had lifed his look from South African rapper Ninja of Die Antwoord for “The Suicide Squad.”
Skarsgård isn’t a stranger to mature genre projects with his upcoming Lionsgate actioner “Boy Kills World,” playing the main villain of “John Wick 4,” appearing in the twisty horror thriller “Barbarian,” and played Pennywise The Dancing Clown in the two recent “IT” movies.
A previous incarnation, of many, nearly had Jason Momoa (“Dune”) playing Eric Draven in the long-gestating remake but for whatever reason it fell apart with director Corin Hardy exiting as well.
“The Crow” recently landed a June 7 release date after Lionsgate delayed their “John Wick” spinoff “Ballerina” to next summer because of upcoming reshoots that hope to beef up the film’s action sequences. With promotion fully underway a trailer likely isn’t far behind.
While just the other day it was reiterated by “Shang-Chi & The Ten Rings” actor Simu Liu (“Barbie”) that writer/director Destin Daniel Cretton would still be developing/directing “Shang-Chi 2” for Marvel Studios once he wraps up with his Disney+ series “Wonder Man.” It sounds like Cretton has landed another big martial arts project and this time it’s a manga/anime adaptation.
The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that Cretton, who recently exited “Avengers 5,” has been hired by Lionsgate to write and direct a live-action film based on “Naruto.” Given Cretton’s experience with “Shang-Chi” and “American Born Chinese,” he seems like one of the best choices to put together this feature film adaptation.
A coming-of-age story focused on a young and enthusiastic ninja named Naruto Uzumaki who wants to grow up to be the leader of his ninja village but also happens to have the spirit of a dragon inside him.
“Naruto” creator Masashi Kishimoto had the following to say about the hiring of Cretton for the live-action feature film incarnation:
“When I heard of Destin’s attachment, it happened to be right after watching a blockbuster action film of his, and I thought he would be the perfect director for ‘Naruto,’” said Kishimoto in a statement mentioned in THR’s article. “After enjoying his other films and understanding that his forte is in creating solid dramas about people, I became convinced that there is no other director for Naturo. In actually meeting Destin, I also found him to be an open-minded director who was willing to embrace my input, and felt strongly that we would be able to cooperate together in the production process.”
However, the one questionable aspect of the project is that Avi Arad is producing, who has been behind a string of dud “Spider-Man” spinoff movies and a “Metal Gear Solid” movie at Sony that keeps stalling despite having scripts, a director with Jordan Vogt-Roberts, and Oscar Isaac playing the lead role of Snake. We’re a little more hopeful that “Naruto” doesn’t linger in limbo with Cretton now involved.
Lionsgate of late has been really making a push to bring back their status as the action genre studio with things like a “Highlander” reboot from Chad Stahleski (“John Wick” franchise) expected to shoot this year with Henry Cavill in a lead role, Guy Ritchie‘s WWII commando action-comedy “The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare” led by Cavill, their “Guardians of The Galaxy” proxy film “Borderlands” (Had reshoots from “Deadpool” director Tim Miller after Eli Roth bailed to make “Thanksgiving” instead of finishing his film), “The Crow” remake from Rupert Sanders (“Ghost In The Shell”), their “John Wick” spinoff movie “Ballerina” led by Ana de Armas, and a new satirical action flick “Boy Kills World” starring Bill Skarsgård.
Yesterday, Lionsgate announced that the studio would be delaying their highly anticipated cinematic spinoff to the “John Wick” franchise. The upcoming film titled “Ballerina” will focus on a deadly assassin named Rooney from Wick’s adoptive family, The Ruska Roma, a criminal syndicate that takes in orphans like John to train them over years into skilled killers that will end up earning for the organization. Cuban-American actress Ana De Armas (“No Time To Die,” “The Gray Man”) will be leading the film as Rooney, the titular ballerina, with a supporting cast that consists of Norman Reedus (“Boondock Saints,” “The Walking Dead”), Gabriel Byrne (“The Usual Suspects”), Anjelica Huston returning as The Director, Keanu Reeves appearing as John Wick, franchise alumn Ian McShane back in the Winston part, and the late Lance Reddick having shot scenes as Charon.
The studio revealed that “Ballerina” has moved from its prime June 7, 2024, spot to June 6, 2025. This would delay the action pic an entire year. It’s directed by Len Wiseman (“Live Free or Die Hard,” “Underworld” franchise), and multiple trade reports, such as the one from Deadline, are citing the delay is that newly minted franchise overseer Chad Stahelski can amp up the spinoff with some additional action scenes.
A big reason for the return of Wick and Charon is the events of the spinoff are set between “John Wick 3” and just before “John Wick 4.”
This popular action franchise is known for adding actors from various beloved action movies from the past and “Ballerina” is no different. We’re expected to have a cameo from French actress Anne Parillaud, who played the lead role in Luc Besson‘s own iconic 1990 assassin film “La Femme Nikita.” An action movie we’ve long assumed had a huge impact on Stahelski’s visual style for the franchise and could be a reason why the last installment took place in Paris.
Taking that open June 7 spot will be Rupert Sanders‘ (“Ghost In The Shell”) remake of “The Crow” which has Swedish actor Bill Skarsgård (“John Wick 4,” “Atomic Blonde”) playing Eric Draven, a talented rock musician murdered alongside his girlfriend Shelly on Devil’s Night only for Draven to be brought back to life by a crow to enact revenge against their killers. Speaking of Stahelski, the stuntman turned director worked on the original 1994 feature incarnation of the comic book film that sadly saw the death of star Brandon Lee after a stunt with guns went wrong. Lee’s death led filmmakers like Stahelski to engage in greater safety standards on sets when it comes to weapons like firearms. While you might not realize this at first glance, most of the gunfire in the “John Wick” movies is mostly done with digital effects to achieve the muzzle flashes and smoke.
In 2023, studios across the board had a good amount of their blockbusters tank or have underwhelming results at the global box office. At this point, the phrase “franchise fatigue” is maybe the more accurate term we should start using here over “superhero fatigue.” Mainly, because it’s not just comic book movies that are struggling to make an impact at the box office, earn as much as the last installment, or turn a profit. In this piece, we’re going to spotlight many of these box office hiccups from last year.
Disney saw a massive ding to their 2023 slate with “Indiana Jones & The Dial of Destiny,” with a $300 million budget and the fifth installment of the “Indiana Jones” franchise, which didn’t click with audiences in the way that Lucasfilm/Disney had hoped earning a less than stellar $383.9 million. Speaking of Lucasfilm, a studio built on the juggernaut “Star Wars” franchise hasn’t shot a feature film since 2019 with “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.” Their pause on the feature division comes after “Solo: A Star Wars Story” had a weak box office take that scared Lucasfilm from pursuing other spinoff films and pivoted to focusing on their streaming series division at Disney+ instead. There have been endless promises of new films by Lucasfilm from filmmakers such as Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, Taika Waititi, Dave Filoni, James Mangold, Shawn Levy, and a mystery trilogy from Rian Johnson. However, we’ll believe all these “Star Wars” movies are happening when the trailers drop considering how many films were turned into series or never happened at all like “Star Wars: Rogue Squadron” that had a release date of December 22,2023 and then the Patty Jenkins-directed pic just vanished.
It’s not just Disney and Warner Bros. undergoing a stress test other studios saw some of their popular franchises taking dings in 2023. Paramount’s “Transformers: Rise of The Beasts” had a somewhat difficult time attracting audiences to the point that it made even less than 2018’s “Bumblebee” with $438.9 million and $166.5 million less than “Transformers: The Last Knight.” Another big stumble for Paramount was “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” and one nobody really saw coming after “Mission: Impossible – Fallout” earned Paramount a whopping $791.6 million back in 2018. The most recent outing led by Tom Cruise only managed to make $395.4 million over the summer which is nearly half of what “Fallout” did. The studio is now abandoning the “Dead Reckoning Part Two” title for “Mission: Impossible 8” entirely.
While I think folks at Lionsgate are happy that their “Hunger Games” prequel has made $322.6 million, yet, that would still be a drop of $338.8 million from “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2.” The fourth installment of “The Expendables” distributed by Lionsgate ended up putting up some of the worst numbers with an embarrassing $21.2 million compared to the last pic’s $214.6 million. “Expendables 4” wasn’t the only disappointing Jason Statham film either as Ben Wheatley’s “Meg 2: The Trench” dropped down by $134.3 million.
Universal has many plans for expanding its Universal Monsters franchise with various features tackling different horror characters. However, in 2023 the studio struggled to get folks to watch either of their high-profile Dracula films with both the comedy “Renfield” ($26.4 million global earnings vs $65 million budget) and the grittier “The Last Voyage of The Demeter” ($21.7 million global earnings vs $45 million budget) which took decades to make it to the big screen failed to scare up an audience outside of the Halloween season. Some of the few horror films that struggled.
Meanwhile, on the superhero front, there were indeed signs of audience apathy. Both “The Marvels” ($46.1 million domestic opening weekend) and “Aquaman & The Lost Kingdom” ($27.7 million domestic opening weekend) were follow-ups to billion-dollar successes that failed to make a big splash by not covering their production/marketing costs.
Of course, the headaches that Marvel Studios experienced in 2023 are obvious with “The Marvels” dipping a massive $925.8 million compared to “Captain Marvel” and “Ant-Man 3” saw a significant drop of $146.6 million in contrast to “Ant-Man & The Wasp.” Although, it wasn’t all bad for the MCU since “Guardians of The Galaxy Vol.3” topped the superhero releases at $845.5 million with a minor slip of $18.2 million.
The final installment of the DCEU, “Aquaman & The Last Kingdom,” had a soft opening weekend as mentioned above, and has only mustered $258.2 million which is another colossal hiccup. A difference of $893.8 million when put up against the original. Ultimately, the “Shazam!” sequel ended up with one of the worst turnouts for major superhero blockbusters. At $133.8 million (Made a fraction of what the original did when it earned $367.7 million in 2019) and given its hefty budget of $300 million, “The Flash” was another catastrophe for WB at $270.6 million. With the DCU set for a big reboot in July 2025, starting with “Superman: Legacy,” there are some expectations that the reset could help with the studio’s rebranding post-Snyderverse. Then again, “Blue Beetle” (Not technically a sequel/follow-up) was retroactively added to the DCU by DC Studios around its release despite a weak $129.2 million at the box office.
Then again, it’s not all bad since there were a handful of upticks in 2023, and some of these include “Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse” hitting $690.5 million, a big jump from the Oscar-winning first installment’s global box office of $384.2 million from 2018. “Creed III” saw a $61 million boost which sounds good for the prospect of a fourth film. When it comes to more mature franchises, “John Wick: Chapter 4” also handed Lionsgate their best numbers over four feature films at $440.1 million. “Saw X” and “Scream VI” did well compared to their last installments too.
Every movie is as different as the reasons for them not becoming massive earners.
We can’t really expect studios to pump the breaks completely on the superhero movies given that it’s still a lucrative venture. There is an overload of sequels on the horizon at Marvel with “Deadpool 3,” “Captain America: Brave New World,” and director Destin Daniel Cretton exiting “Avengers 5” to focus on “Shangi-Chi 2.” “Deadpool 3,” an R-rated sequel, is expected to be the only MCU feature film released this year and gives the studios a bit of a cooling-off period.
While these pics haven’t been given official release dates or announced by Marvel themselves, there is an expectation that we’ll be getting “Spider-Man 4,” “Doctor Strange 3,” “Thor 5,” “Captain America 5,” and possibly “Eternals 2.” There are also a bunch of reboots on the way with things like “Fantastic Four,” “Blade,” “X-Men,” James Gunn’s “Superman: Legacy” shooting in 2024, and a new Batman film with “The Brave & The Bold.”
Sony’s adjacent Marvel films in 2024 include “Madame Web,” “Kraven The Hunter,” and the final solo outing for Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock in “Venom 3.” We don’t know how much appetite audiences have for these movies without Tom Holland’s involvement and a disaster like “Morbius” harkening back to the era of the 2000s when studios were rushing half-cooked superhero films into theaters to meet the demand.
A bunch of non-comic book blockbusters or follow-up installments coming later this year include “Dune: Part Two,” “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire,” “Gladiator 2,” “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga,” “Kung Fu Panda 4,” “Inside Out 2,” “Kingdom of The Planet of The Apes,” “Alien: Romulus,” “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire,” “Mufasa: The King King,” “Sonic The Hedgehog 3,” “The Lord of The Rings: The War of The Rohirrim,” ‘Smile 2,” “Saw XI,” “Transformers One,” “Beetlejuice 2,” “Wolf Man,” “A Quiet Place: Day One,” “Despicable Me 4,” “Bad Boys 4,” “Ballerina,” “The Strangers: Chapter 1,” and Radio Silence’s Universal Monsters film. Hopefully, these do a lot better with audiences.
Solutions? Well, spending $200-300 million a pop for these films is simply going to be unsustainable, and trying to market every blockbuster as an event continues to be difficult for studios when their slate is mostly these kinds of films in an oversaturated market. Studios would likely benefit from seeking out filmmakers who can deliver genre films at lower costs and potentially scaling back the overreliance on VFX. An adjusted expectation for these movies could be closer to a cume of $300-500 million and studios would be smart to think about going back to budgets closer to/under $80-100 million. The bigger the movie the pricier reshoots and overhauls will be to fix hiccups in the editing/post process which has contributed to a lot of these bloated budgets making it tougher for studios to recoup their overall costs.
Some other factors include that COVID is still ongoing with people avoiding crowded theaters/malls and a lot of audiences don’t have to wait long for releases to drop on streaming services they’re already subscribing to. The latter seems a lot more damaging because the shortened theatrical windows mean studios have to deal with not only folks waiting out to get movies for “free” on streaming via subs and diminishes the importance of the theatrical experience. Warner Bros. during the early days of the pandemic attempted to do day-and-date releases which was detrimental to their film division it led AT&T’s John Stankey to bail on the company by handing over the reins to David Zaslav/Discovery (His tax write-off scheme leading to the erasure of films and shows is equally imbecilic).
A good example of this was Disney, who dumped three straight Pixar films “Soul,” “Luca,” and “Turning Red” on Disney+ and seemingly did large brand damage as they’re trying to fix in retrospect by releasing them all in theaters in 2024 (See teaser trailer above). This comes ahead of the release of “Inside Out 2” in June, a follow-up to a $858.8 million hit, that may aim to curb some of the weak box office that “Toy Story” semi-spinoff “Lightyear” saw in 2022.
It’s worth mentioning that things like “Barbie,” “Oppenheimer,” and “Super Mario Bros.” surprised us all with their massive earnings as when these movies were first announced they weren’t slamdunks to the point we were expecting them to be the Top 3 films of 2023. Their theatrical windows gave those pics plenty of time to accumulate a bunch of cash. Also, doesn’t hurt that both “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” (Still playing at my local theater in December) came from visionary filmmakers, Greta Gerwig and Christopher Nolan respectively. Selecting creatives that can contribute to the script or elevate the material to make something appealing to an audience when a lot of genre projects can blend together or seem generic might help. Nolan and Denis Villeneuve have been extremely vocal on the importance of theatrical windows.
We shouldn’t be all doom-and-gloom about the situation. I’m mostly optimistic since there were plenty of good box office stories in 2023 and studios aren’t suddenly going to stop making these movies. Yet, potentially trimming the volume of releases, not trying to manufacture event status for all films, and using their abundant resources more carefully should be a good start. Marvel/Disney have already signaled they’re looking to pivot and make constructive changes. We’ll see if other studios make similar adjustments with their own franchises that are seeing dwindling interest.
Here is a rundown of franchise releases in 2023 to give you an idea of how lopsided the box office of 2023 actually was:
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3 ($845.5 million)
FAST X ($704.8 million)
SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE ($690.5 million)
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – DEAD RECKONING PART ONE ($567.5 million)
ANT-MAN & THE WASP: QUANTUMANIA ($476 million)
TRANSFORMERS: RISE OF THE BEASTS ($438.9 million)
THE HUNGER GAMES: THE BALLAD OF SONGBIRDS & SNAKES ($322.6 million)
There can be only one! Lionsgate has spent over a decade trying to put together a modern reboot of the beloved 1986 film “Highlander,” which focused on a collective of immortals battling it out across time and the world to gain “the prize.” That prize is the final living immortal and being granted a natural death from old age. This latest incarnation of “Highlander” hails from “John Wick” franchise director Chad Stahelski and stars British actor Henry Cavill (“The Witcher”) in a leading role. We now have a release window for the reboot thanks to an update from the studio.
Lionsgate chairman Joe Drake on a recent earnings call (via IGN) has stated they hope that the pic will be part of the studios’ tentpole slate in 2026. There were some indications that filming on “Highlander” could begin early next year and given that the strikes are over, there could be some more casting announcements in the very near future.
Previous reporting suggested that the budget could be north of $100 million, which would be closer to what “John Wick 4” cost the studio and a potential indication of how large the action-packed film might end up. Screenwriter Mike Finch (“Predators,” “John Wick 4”) is said to have penned the latest draft of the script.
Cavill is an excellent casting choice for the swordplay franchise after cutting his teeth as it were on “The Witcher.” His extensive sword/stunt training on that Netflix fantasy series should help when the team at 87 Eleven Action Design put the actor through his paces in the action prep process which can be grueling.
This isn’t the only project on the horizon for Stahelski as he is attached to direct the feature film adaptation of the PlayStation samurai video game, “Ghost of Tsushima,” which recently got a development update with the filmmaker revealing they “have a script.” That project over at Sony Pictures is assumed to be the next thing Stahelski makes once he wraps on “Highlander.”
We’re hopeful that Lionsgate will be able to release the film released around the spring/summer of 2026, but we’ll have to wait for a concrete date.
Lionsgate is officially moving forward with its reboot of the “Highlander” franchise after multiple years in development and is aiming to begin shooting in early 2024, one of the more concrete updates we’ve seen yet on the project. A report from Deadline has revealed that the film is now heading to the American Film Market to find partners as the budget is said to be over $100 million. Which is sort of on par with what Lionsgate spent on Stahelski’s recent hit “John Wick 4.” As previously reported, British actor Henry Cavill is attached for a leading role, and screenwriter Mike Finch (“Predators,” “John Wick 4”) is said to have penned the latest draft of the script.
This comes after Stahelski has been mulling over what feature film he’d tackle next after making four straight installments of the increasingly popular “John Wick” franchise starring Keanu Reeves. “Highlander” would, of course, be an excellent excuse for Stahelski to explore different kinds of action scenes as the characters who inhabit this universe are immortals and can only be killed once their heads are severed from their bodies, usually by swords. Meaning that we’ll get plenty of swordplay in the “Highlander” reboot, something that Cavill is seemingly primed and ready for after his tenure as the lead in Netflix’s fantasy series “The Witcher.”
“There Can Be Only One,” is the main tagline and refers to the quest of immortals to be the last man standing in duels to the death, as once an immortal kills another their power/strength via the Quickening is adding to their own. However, it’s been signaled that they’re more or less going to be taking cues from both the films and the expanded television series mythology. Since they don’t want to start off the first film with all immortals dead, this was sort of retconned later in the TV adaptations to allow for great numbers of immortals both good and bad to populate the show. Watchers were introduced in the series as the mortal faction that documents and sometimes even mentors immortals as they navigate a dangerous landscape that even includes super-immortals, a few that have killed so many fellow immortals over the centuries their powers are more in the realm of super-human.
The reboot has seen different incarnations over the years from Ryan Reynolds once attached to the lead the project long before his “Deadpool” success and even had “Fast & Furious” franchise director Justin Lin involved before Stahelski was ultimately selected to helm. Cavill recently returned to feature films shooting two action films back-to-back with Guy Ritchie and seems primed to get “Highlander” in the can as well.
Another big what-if is going to be what actors they’ll be able to secure for “Highlander” as the ongoing strike between SAG-AFTRA (actors’ union) and the AMPTP (studios) has yet to be officially resolved. However, there are ongoing negotiations this week that could end up resulting in a positive outcome with a fair deal for actors.
One of the biggest aspects of the original film was the soundtrack/score handled by British rock group, Queen. It’ll be interesting to see if Lionsgate attempts to do a similar collaboration with an active metal/rock group to make sure the music is another character of the reboot.
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.'”
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.
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.
John Woo is arguably one of the most influential action directors of the 1980s and 1990s, he basically helped make Hong Kong actor Chow Yun-Fat an international action star while also ushering in gun-fu, essentially an action sub-genre where gunplay is just as visually stunning as any martial arts fight. Those action pics such as “The Killer” and “Hard-Boiled” eventually caught the attention of Hollywood leading to him making “Face-Off,” “Broken Arrow,” “Harget Target,” “Paycheck,” and “Windtalkers.” The filmmaker is making his grand return to Hollywood after 20 years thanks to Thunder Road and Lionsgate, the folks behind the “John Wick” franchise.
Woo is very much back to the genre he helped popularize over 40 years ago with Lionsgate’s “Silent Night” starring Swedish actor Joel Kinnaman (“The Suicide Squad”) playing a grief-stricken father who is looking to get bloody revenge during the holiday season after the death of his son. The kicker and main gimmick of the film, our protagonist doesn’t speak. The film’s tagline is “Action Speaks Louder Than Words” and the trailer they dropped yesterday (See below) very much indicates that’s the case.
Here is the official logline of “Silent Night” via Lionsgate:
“From legendary director John Woo and the producer of ‘John Wick’ comes this gritty revenge tale of a tormented father (Joel Kinnaman) who witnesses his young son die when caught in a gang’s crossfire on Christmas Eve. While recovering from a wound that costs him his voice, he makes vengeance his life’s mission and embarks on a punishing training regimen in order to avenge his son’s death.”
Other cast members include Scott Mescudi, Harold Torres, and Cataline Sandino Moreno.
Another Hollywood project on the horizon for Woo is a Western remake of his iconic Hong Kong pic, “The Killer.”
“Silent Night” will be blasting into theaters on December 1 and you can watch that new trailer below.
“The Expendables” was a bit of a curiosity when it originally hit theaters in 2010 as the Sly Stallone-directed action film looked to not only resurrect the careers of various action stars but also tried to bring back a certain type of R-rated action film that got popularized in the 1980-1990s. Echoing the ultra-violence that Stallone had previously brought with his film “John Rambo.” In the wake of the superhero genre, it was a nice bit of counterprogramming to see Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, and others assembling including cameos from Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger. This would continue with the second installment seeing Jean Claude Van Damme and Scott Adkins playing villains with Willis and Schwarzenegger getting boosted action-focused scenes also with a cameo of sorts from former martial artist Chuck Norris leaning into his legendary badass status.
However, when it came to “The Expendables 3” the studio decided to court a younger audience by throwing off the mature rating for a more box office friendly PG-13. That didn’t seem to work out for the sequel as it ended up only earning $214.6 million at the global box office, a near hundred million dip from what “The Expendables 2” had made in 2012 and seemed to be a cautionary tale about switching ratings during a successful run in the quest for more box office dollars.
Nearly a decade later Lionsgate/Millineum Media is finally back with “The Expendables 4” as they hoped to coax back that mature audience. An audience that has since been entertained by four “John Wick” installments (“John Wick 4” earning Lionsgate $426.5 million earlier in the year) and expecting a lot more from action leads delivering actual fights alongside inventive sequences, an increasing issue with Stallone pushing 80 and other co-stars not getting any younger. The studio being aware of this seemingly pivoted to Jason Statham’s Lee Christmas stepping up as the franchise lead with new additions like Megan Fox and Curtis Jackson (50 Cent), who aren’t exactly action-genre royalty like Statham has become.
Well, it looks like the opening domestic numbers are in and they’re already drastically behind “The Expendables 3” ($15.8 million) with an estimated $8.3 million and nabbing the #2 spot behind “The Nun II,” which is much lower than the projected $15 million and is now a franchise low for the studio. For some perspective, the original film from 2010 opened to an impressive $34.8 million and given an assumed $90-100 million production budget this isn’t exactly good news for Lionsgate.
This doesn’t bode well for future installments and it’s unclear if the overseas markets can make up these hiccups. Statham isn’t always seen as a box office champ, but earlier this year his blockbuster shark pic “Meg 2: The Trench” at Warner Bros. was able to rake in $390.7 million.
THE RONIN 