News culture The director of “John Wick” comes to save the next film in the saga: Ana de Armas tries to succeed Keanu Reeves
John Wick is no more, but the franchise isn’t ready to call it quits just yet. After four canonical films and a prequel series, the Baba Yaga universe continues with a spin-off centered on another, equally deadly character, but not everything goes well. To save the film, the producers had to bring in the franchise’s creator.
An expanding universe… without Keanu Reeves
The death of John Wick at the end of the fourth and final chapter of his cinematic adventures could/should have marked the end of the saga, but This did not take into account the greed of the Hollywood companies, which want to exploit Baba Yaga’s still warm corpse for many years.
Ballerina is an American action film directed by Len Wiseman, who strangely hasn’t made anything since Total Recall: Programmed Memories was released in 2012. This feature film, whose events take place between John Wick Parabellum and John Wick: Chapter 4, focuses on ballerina and assassin Eva Macarro, who is determined to avenge her father’s death after training under the infamous Ruska Rome. Ana de Armas replaces Keanu Reeves as headliner, with the latter set to make a notable appearance. Ballerina has been in development since 2017 and will finally be released in June 2025 after a postponement and chaotic production.
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A spin-off saved by Chad Stahelski
Len Wiseman is known in Hollywood for previously directing the first two Underworld, Die Hard 4 and Total Recall: Programmed Memories. Some of these films were popular but rarely critical successes, and the setbacks the latter suffered during Ballerina’s production only confirm our fears. The filmmaker was replaced at short notice by Chad Stahelski himself, who supervised the reshoots organized in Prague without L. Wiseman. A large portion of the film would have been returned in this way to rectify the situation after the disastrous initial returns.
According to an industry person who recently spoke to our colleagues The Wrap
Of course, Chad had to clean up someone else’s mess. Remember, this movie is actually John Wick 3.5. The story takes place before John Wick 4 and after this film, they can no longer fail in anything Wick related. (…) Chad is going to do Highlander, but cleaning Ballerina set him back five months, that’s for sure. – (anonymous source)
Ballerina will be released in cinemas in France on June 4, 2025.
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