John Wick Director Developing New Assassin Action Movie

Chad Stahelski may only have three features behind the camera under his belt, but when they comprise a trio of John Wick movies, then you can’t help but regard the filmmaker as one of the industry’s premiere action directors, and his schedule is more jam-packed than ever after the Keanu Reeves franchise shot him to mainstream attention.

Chapter 4 is currently shooting and a fifth installment has already been confirmed, while he’s also teaming with Henry Cavill for the long-gestating Highlander reboot, serves as a producer on Jamie Foxx’s vampire action comedy Day Shift, signed on to tackle video game adaptation Ghosts of Tsushima and will help oversee Wick prequel series The Continental.

However, there’s clearly still room on his plate for at least one more project, after Stahelski was tapped by Warner Bros. to develop an action-packed take on Trevanian’s novel Shibumi. Set in the 1970s, the story follows Shanghai-born assassin Nicholai Hel, and opens with the character enjoying a quiet life of retirement having spent his adult life putting his martial arts expertise to good use.

Of course, ‘one last job’ comes calling when a figure from his past appears out of the blue and asks for his help in seeking revenge on the Mother Company, a conglomerate secretly controlling much of the Western world. Shibumi is a title that’s come close to being given the green light in the past, with Keanu Reeves ironically circling at one stage, but the director of John Wick taking the reins of a period-set revenge action thriller with a global conspiracy at the center comes packing no shortage of potential, so this is definitely one worth keeping an eye on.