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.
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.
The Magnificent Seven’s Haley Bennett has joined the growing cast of Lionsgate’s feature film adaptation of the video game franchise Borderlands, directed by Eli Roth. The news of Haley’s addition to Borderlands comes to us via The Hollywood Reporter. The actress will take an unnamed key role joining a cast that includes Cate Blanchett as Lilith, Kevin Hart as Roland, Jamie Lee Curtis as Tannis, Ariana Greenblatt as Tiny Tina, Florian Munteanu as Krieg, and Jack Black as Claptrap.
The game’s story focuses on a group of four “Vault Hunters”, who travel to the distant planet of Pandora to search for the “Vault”, which is rumored to contain advanced alien technology and other priceless riches.
Eli Roth will be directing from a script penned by Craig Mazin, the writer is best known for his work on the fantastic HBO limited series Chernobyl and is currently working with Neil Druckmann for the live-action series based on The Last of Us starring The Mandalorian’s Pedro Pascal as Joel.
The filming is going to be taking place in Budapest. We’ve been able to confirm that Borderlands’ production team includes production designer Oliver Scholl (Suicide Squad, Venom, Spider-Man: Homecoming) and cinematographer Rogier Stoffers (Death Wish, The House With A Clock In Its Walls).
Lionsgate has yet to give the action film an official release date but sometime in 2022 feels like a good bet.
Lionsgate has confirmed via The Hollywood Reporter that comedian Kevin Hart has indeed landed the role of Roland in the live-action Borderlands movie from director Eli Roth. Kevin Hart’s involvement and his role was first reported by The Illuminerdi back in December.
The film is an adaptation of the video game franchise and has been in the works for so long that it originally had director Leigh Whannell (The Invisible Man, Upgrade) attached before Eli Roth was brought on alongside actress Cate Blanchett in the role of Lilth.
The game’s story focuses on a group of four “Vault Hunters”, who travel to the distant planet of Pandora to search for the “Vault”, which is rumored to contain advanced alien technology and other priceless riches.
It’s script was penned by Craig Mazin, who is behind HBO’s limited series Chernobyl and the upcoming The Last of Us series.
Hart is best known for action-comedy roles such as the popular Jumanji movies, his cameo in Hobbs & Shaw, and recently shoot the action flick The Man From Toronto.
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 TheMatrix 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.
Lionsgate has finally dropped the first trailer for Doug Liman’s long-delayed science fiction film Chaos Walking which stars Spider-Man actor Tom Holland and Star Wars actress Daisy Ridley. The project has been having trouble finding a release date and the studio seems to want to keep it TBA in 2021 for the time being.
The trailer showcases the film’s interesting mix of science fiction like Oblivion meets a post-apocalypse western like The Last of Us, certainly looks to be action-packed alongside some choice visuals.
Liman is best known for the Tom Cruise film Edge of Tomorrow.
CHAOS WALKING – In the not too distant future, Todd Hewitt (Tom Holland) discovers Viola (Daisy Ridley), a mysterious girl who crash lands on his planet, where all the women have disappeared and the men are afflicted by “the Noise” – a force that puts all their thoughts on display. In this dangerous landscape, Viola’s life is threatened – and as Todd vows to protect her, he will have to discover his own inner power and unlock the planet’s dark secrets. From the director of The Bourne Identity and Edge of Tomorrow and based on the best-selling novel The Knife of Never Letting Go, Daisy Ridley and Tom Holland star with Mads Mikkelsen, Demián Bichir, Cynthia Erivo, Nick Jonas, Kurt Sutter, and David Oyelowo in Chaos Walking.
In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter to promote her film Love & Monsters, Matrix 4 actress Jessica Henwick (Game of Thrones, Iron Fist, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Godzilla vs Kong) revealed she has been pitching to co-star Keanu Reeves on the idea of playing “Jess Wick” at the very end of John Wick: Chapter 4. She states that John Wick franchise director Chad Stahelski is coming to the Matrix 4 set in two weeks and plans on giving him the pitch as well.
HENWICK: “So I pitch Jess Wick to Keanu all the time. I’m probably driving him crazy. I was like, ‘Okay, Keanu, listen to me. Boom. John Wick 4, last 5 minutes, credits roll, post-credit sequence. Boom! You see my face, Jess Wick.’ I just started acting it out and then he started acting it out, too. We put on this little ten-minute show of what Jess Wick and John Wick would be like. Chad Stahelski, the director of all the John Wick movies, is flying out in two weeks, I think. So I’m going to go straight up to him and I’m going to say it.”
Henwick is said to be playing a Neo-type character in the Matrix sequel and we’ve seen Chad court actors that have previously worked with Keanu in the past. It might be in their interest to add someone like Jessica with stunt/actor experience for what new roles they want to include if it’s Jess Wick or not.
Once Matrix 4 is completed there is an expectation that John Wick: Chapter 4 and John Wick: Chapter 5 will be shot back-to-back with franchise creator Derek Kolstad suggesting that Chapter 5 could be the final film in the John Wick Saga.
We know that a female-focused spinoff that is in the works at Lionsgate titled Ballerina with Underworld director Len Wiseman attached and there is a good shot that actress might appear in the next two John Wick films to help bridge their connections to the same cinematic universe.
Matrix 4 is set to be released on December 22nd, 2021 and John Wick: Chapter 4 is expected to be out on May 27th, 2022.
Lionsgate is really keen on keeping John Wick franchise director Chad Stahelski at the studio, as Deadline reports they’ve attached to him a direct a spec-script titled Arcana they just picked up from Predators screenwriters Michael Finch and Alex Litvak.
A gritty urban fantasy set in the hidden world of magical clans.
The project seems to be in the director’s wheelhouse as he has been developing a reboot of the sci-fi fantasy action franchise Highlander, which could materialize as either a film or television series.
Stahelski will produce via 87Eleven Entertainment.
Chad will be a little busy for the foreseeable future with Lionsgate hoping to shoot John Wick: Chapter 4 and John Wick: Chapter 5 back-to-back. The fourth installment is expected to begin production once Keanu Reeves completes his work on Matrix 4 possibly in 2021.
Deadline is reporting that David F. Sandberg would be returning to the world of horror for a new project from Lionsgate titled The Culling. The filmmaker is best known for directing the DC Comics film Shazam! for New Line Cinema and is attached to also direct it’s sequel. His roots are within the horror genre tackling films such as Lights Out and Annabelle: Creation.
The original horror film is from a spec-script penned by Stephen Herman.
A troubled priest confines himself to a remote cabin in the middle of the woods where he attempts to make a last stand against the demon that terrorized his family when he was a child.
Mångata and Fear Content will produce.
David is expected to shoot his sequel to Shazam! next as the film has a release date of November 4th, 2022. This release date would suggest that they plan to begin filming the superhero film sometime in 2021.
Deadline is reporting that Lionsgate has paired director Ben Stiller with actor Oscar Isaac for a new high-concept thriller titled London based on a new story from crime author Jo Nesbo (The Snowman), which will be adapted by Oscar-winning screenwriter Eric Roth (Killers of The Flower Moon, The Insider, Munich, Forrest Gump).
Details on the project are scarce at the moment but the writing talent involved is certainly very interesting to say the least.
Oscar was recently working on Paul Schrader’s The Card Counter before production was paused due to a COVID-19 outbreak on set and he also wrapped Denis Villeneuve’s Dune remake for Warner Bros./Legendary Entertainment last year.
Stiller is best known for directing comedies such as Zoolander and Tropic Thunder. But has tried his hand at more adventurous projects like The Secret Life of Water Mitty and the Showtime mini-series Escape At Dannemora.
THE RONIN 