“The Crow,” a mature comic book film released in 1994, has seen a handful of soft reboots/remakes over the years with three follow-up installments and a Canadian television series “The Crow: Stairway To Heaven” led by actor Mark Dacascos (“John Wick 3”) that looked to first reboot the Eric Draven story. Played by the late Brandon Lee in the original film, Draven is an aspiring musician who is killed alongside his fiancee and is returned to the land of the living (via a supernatural crow) to get revenge against a local group of gangsters/thugs in Detroit. The long-gestating feature film reboot finally getting made was only just a matter of time and has gone through various stages over the years such as having actors like Jack Huston (“Boardwalk Empire”) and Jason Momoa (“Game of Thrones”) attached at different points to play the lead before eventually Swedish actor Bill Skarsgård (“IT”) landed the part for director Rupert Sanders (“Ghost In The Shell”).
The film had been seeking distribution partners and Deadline has revealed that Lionsgate has made a deal to handle the film’s domestic distribution as part of the film market linked to the Toronto International Film Festival with CAA Media Finance putting this eight-figure deal together.
Skarsgård had recently played the main villain of Lionsgate’s “John Wick 4” and joined the cast of Robert Eggers’ vampire pic, “Nosferatu.” Other actors among the cast of “The Crow” include FKA Twigs, DannyHuston, Laura Birn, Sami Bouajila, and Jordan Bolger. Production on the remake took place in Prague, Czech Republic, and Munich, Germany.
A release date wasn’t mentioned in the report, but it’s assumed that it could come out sometime in 2024.
Below is the logline for the original 1994 film:
The night before his wedding, musician Eric Draven (Brandon Lee) and his fiancée are brutally murdered by members of a violent inner-city gang. On the anniversary of their death, Eric rises from the grave and assumes the gothic mantle of the Crow, a supernatural avenger. Tracking down the thugs responsible for the crimes and mercilessly murdering them, Eric eventually confronts head gangster Top Dollar (Michael Wincott) to complete his macabre mission.
**** 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.
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.”
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.
Filming is underway in Turkey on Guy Ritchie‘s next action film, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. A new WWII actioner that focuses on the first British commando unit during the war that was founded by Winston Churchill and Ian Fleming (future author of the James Bond novels) that developed a modern type of warfare that used smaller groups of highly trained soldiers meant to cause larger body counts and damage to the enemy behind the lines using spy-craft methods alongside brutal violence.
We’ve been able to confirm that Ritchie has tapped production designer Martyn John is as expected is indeed working on the new film. His previous credits include Wrath of Man, Operation Fortune, the upcoming military thriller The Covenant, and even the television spinoff of The Gentlemen at Netflix. He joins a crew that already consists of cinematographer Ed Wild (The Covenant) and costume designer LouLou Bontemps (The Covenant).
John posted a handful of images on his Instagram account (where he confirmed his involvement) and showcases some of of the sets/props from the WWII film. The pic that has Jerry Bruckheimer (Top Gun: Maverick) producing already has an impressive cast that consists of Henry Cavill, Eiza González, Alan Ritchson, Henrique Zaga, Henry Golding, Alex Pettyfer, Cary Elwes, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, Babs Olusanmokun, and Til Schweiger.
When France fell to the Nazis in 1940, Churchill declared that Britain would resist the advance of the German army–alone if necessary. Churchill commanded the Special Operations Executive to secretly develop of a very special kind of military unit that would operate on their own initiative deep behind enemy lines. The units would be licensed to kill, fully deniable by the British government, and a ruthless force to meet the advancing Germans. The very first of these “butcher-and-bolt” units–the innocuously named Maid Honour Force–was led by Gus March-Phillipps, a wild British eccentric of high birth, and an aristocratic, handsome, and bloodthirsty young Danish warrior, Anders Lassen. Amped up on amphetamines, these assorted renegades and sociopaths undertook the very first of Churchill’s special operations–a top-secret, high-stakes mission to seize Nazi shipping in the far-distant port of Fernando Po, in West Africa.
Lionsgate is expected to distribute the film in theaters domestically sometime next year with Amazon Prime Video getting a heap of international rights to the film. There have been some talk that Ritchie is expecting Ministry to the be the start of a potential franchise.
The Ronin has learned that cinematographer Ed Wild, who recently worked with director Guy Ritchie on his action thriller The Covenant, is expected to be lensing his World War II film The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. Production is currently underway in Turkey with multiple locations expected to be used throughout filming.
Wild’s other credits include the recent Halo series, Black Mirror, and the British crime thriller Welcome To The Punch. The latter had a cast that featured James McAvoy, Mark Strong, Andrea Riseborough, Peter Mullan, Jason Flemyng, Daniel Kaluuya, and David Morrissey.
Ministry has assembled quite the cast as it consists of Henry Cavill, Eiza González, Alan Ritchson, Henrique Zaga, Henry Golding, Alex Pettyfer, Cary Elwes, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, Babs Olusanmokun, and Til Schweiger. Ritchie was able to get mega-producer Jerry Bruckheimer involved too, he is recently coming off the billion-dollar hit Top Gun: Maverick.
Of course, the film is based on the true story the top secret WWII combat organization formed by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Ian Fleming (long before his James Bond novels). The commandos’ unconventional and brutal fighting techniques against the Nazis helped changed the course of the war and gave birth to the modern Black Ops unit. Using the novel by war correspondent Damien Lewis as template, the script was penned by Ritchie, Paul Tamasy, Eric Johnson, and Arash Amel.
Lionsgate nabbed the US distribution rights earlier this month and is expected to release it sometime in 2024 with Amazon Prime landing a heap of international rights, including Canada. There are already early plans for the film to launch into a full-blown franchise and could spawn subsequent sequels. However, it’s unclear if we’ll see the same cast lineup in those potential follow-ups but might be a good idea to secure Cavill early on.
Ritchie’s other upcoming projects he’s attached to include the Aladdin sequel for Disney along with their live-action musical version of Hercules.
You can watch the trailer Ritchie’s The Covenant below to get an idea of what Wild will be bringing to the WWII actioner.
Gerard Butler is continuing his relationship with Lionsgate and has signed-on to lead a new action pic titled The Plane, the film’s script was penned by Charles Cumming, JP Davis and Matt Cook. The film is based on Cumming’s novel.
Brodie Torrance (Butler), who, after a heroic job of successfully landing his storm-damaged aircraft in hostile territory, finds himself threatened by militant pirates who want to take the and its passengers hostage. As the world searches for the disappeared aircraft, Brodie must rise to the occasion and keep his passengers safe until help arrives.
The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that Luke Cage actor Mike Colter has landed a role opposite Butler.
Colter will play Louis Gaspare, a cool-headed, ex-military man being extradited to Canada on charges of homicide when the plane crash lands on a dangerous remote island.
Jean-François Richet (Blood Father, Assault On Precinct 13, Mesrine) directs and is said to begin shooting later this month in Puerto Rico.
There’s been multiple hiccups and delays concerning studio plans to move forward with a fourth Expendables installment. However, Sly Stallone in the last two years has retired from both the Rambo and Rocky/Creed franchises allowing him to do The Expendables 4, something that has been in development for over five years now.
The movies focus on a team of professional mercenaries based out of the United States, that normally are assigned to rescue missions or operations deemed too dangerous. Their main draw over the years has been pitting various action stars together that previous have never worked together on the big screen. Notable stars include Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Harrison Ford, Wesley Snipes, Chuck Norris, Antonio Banderas, Mickey Rourke, and Mel Gibson.
Stallone has taken to Instagram over the weekend to tease that the project might finally be underway in the near future. Showing off a new ring for his character Barney.
“Just finished the designing the new ring for EXPENDABLE 4 It’s a little heavy, but it’ll definitely put some muscles on your fingertips,” Stallone said in his post on Instagram.
There have been expectations that Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, and Arnold Schwarzenegger would be part of the cast, but no major announcements concerning a director or who will be joining Stallone have been made public. Also, there had been a spinoff film reported on a while back that would have focused on Statham’s Lee Christmas, but that seemed to fizzle-out and it’s unknown if that was actually Expendables 4 or not.
Gregory Poirier was the last screenwriter attached to the project and had been expected to shoot in Sofia, Bulgaria at some point.
Expendables 3 attempted a PG-13 rating in what I assume was the studio’s push to make more money, but the film ended up making the least at the box office out of the three installments with only $214.6 million globally, $100 million less than Expendables 2. Hopefully, they’ll wise-up and return to a mature rating given there aren’t many kids out there looking to spend cash watching aging action stars huff and puff for our entertainment.
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.
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.
THE RONIN 