John Wickwas one of the most unexpected hits in recent memory. What seemed like a run-of-the-mill action movie turned into a massive critical and financial success, spawning an even more successful sequel with a third installment in the works. Now Lionsgate is looking to get in on the cinematic universe game and turn a female-led action script calledBallerinainto a female-led movie within theJohn Wick universe.
PerThe Hollywood Reporter, Lionsgate won a pretty significant bidding war for theBallerinascript, which was written by newcomer Shay Hatten. Warner Bros. and Universal were also said to be interested, but Lionsgate came out on top.Ballerinawas not written as something intended to be in theJohn Wickuniverse, but they saw the potential in it and decided this would be a good opportunity to try and give one of their most successful franchises a major shot in the arm with a female-driven spin-off.
Details are largely being kept under wraps withBallerina, but it is said to “center on a young woman raised as an assassin who must hunt down the other assassins that murdered her family.” It was also compared to director Luc Besson’sLa Femme Nikita, but with a hyper-violent tone akin to directors like Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction,The Hateful Eight) and Matthew Vaughn (Kick-Ass,Kingsman: The Secret Service). Even if that wasn’t intended to be a movie set within theJohn Wickuniverse initially, it certainly sounds like this young woman would fit in quite nicely at theContinental Hotelwith all of the other assassins from that universe.
As for 23-year-old Shay Hatten, this could wind up being a big deal for him. Prior to the recent sale ofBallerina, he had been working as a writer’s assistant for Robert Downey Jr.’s company,Team Downey. He got an internship with the company after graduation from film school and he got a major boost when his dark comedyMaximum King!, which is a fictional take on how Stephen King wrote and directedMaximum Overdrive, made it onto the Black List, which is a list of the best unproduced screenplays in Hollywood. He managed to work onBallerinain his spare time and now he could be looking at a major franchise.
John Wick: Chapter Twomade $169 million worldwide earlier this year working from a relatively small budget. If Lionsgate can successfully turnBallerinainto a similarly low-budget spin-off, this could be huge. Given the desire for female-led movies afterWonder Womanand given the feverish desire for studios to make cinematic universes happen right now, this could be a home run. Especially considering that this is one of the more sensible cinematic universe ideas out there right now.
In addition toBallerina, Lionsgate is also working onJohn Wick 3, but director Chad Stahelski hasn’t yet confirmed whether or not he will direct. They also have plans for aJohn WickTV series aboutThe Continental. There was also some talk by David Leitch of a potential crossover withAtomic Blonde, but that doesn’t seem overly likely since that upcoming release takes place in the 90s and John Wick exists in the here and now.Ballerinadoesn’t have any timetable attached in terms of release date or production, but Basil Iwanyk, who handles theJohn Wickmovies via his Thunder Road production company, will produce.
