Oscar winner Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman, Killing Eve) is lending her writing talents to John Wick spinoff film Ballerina. The film, set within the Wick universe, follows a young female assassin who seeks revenge on those who killed her family. Ana de Armas (Knives Out, The Gray Man) stars in the film, which will be directed by Len Wiseman (Underworld, Live Free or Die Hard). Wiseman had written the script with Shay Hatten (John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum), but de Armas wanted to bring in a female voice to punch up the script. And few do revenge better than Fennell, whose directorial debut Promising Young Woman was a searing indictment of rape culture and a portrait of female rage.
de Armas discusses seeking out Fennell in an interview with Elle magazine, saying “It was really important for me to hire a female writer, because to that point when I got involved in the project, it was only the director, Len Wiseman, and another guy. And I was like, ‘That’s not going to work.’ So I interviewed, like, five or six female writers. We hired Emerald Fennell, which I was so proud of.”
While details of the film have been kept under wraps, Wick fans were introduced to trained ballerinas in Chapter 3 – Parabellum. In the film, John (real name Jardani Jovonovich) meets with the Director (Anjelica Huston) the head of the Ruska Roma crime syndicate. The Director runs an assassin training school for Russian youth: we see her training an exhausted ballerina while also overseeing a group of young male wrestlers. It’s just one aspect of the richly drawn Wick universe, which sees a worldwide society of assassins that have their own rules, codes, safe hotels, and networks.
Before Ballerina debuts, fans can look forward to John Wick: Chapter Four, which is scheduled to be released on March 24, 2023. There is also a television prequel series, The Continental, coming to Starz. The series follows origin behind the hotel-for-assassins through the eyes and actions of a young Winston Scott (played in the films by Ian McShane), who is dragged into the Hell-scape of a 1975 New York City to face a past he thought he’d left behind. Unfortunately, the series stars Mel Gibson.
In the meantime, we look forward to revisiting the world of John Wick in 2023.
(via Variety, featured image: MGM)
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