John Wick Creator Developing New Spy Show From Splinter Cell Writers
Derek Kolstad has become one of the action and espionage genre’s go-to guys over the last decade, which comes with the territory when you’re responsible for creating the acclaimed and wildly successful John Wick franchise.
The writer penned the first three Keanu Reeves action extravaganzas, and while his services weren’t enlisted for next year’s Chapter 4, it hasn’t exactly slowed him down. Kolstad also penned Bob Odenkirk’s fantastic Nobody and boarded the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, with The Hollywood Reporter now revealing that he’s heading back to the small screen for ABC’s Candygram.
Katie Stone and David Daitch, the duo who penned Mark Wahlberg’s Shooter, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered and Netflix’s in-development Splinter Cell honed the pitch, which follows a local woman who discovers that her unique set of skills make her an ideal recruit for the CIA after they set up shop in her hometown of Las Vegas, but her unconventional ways of operating draw the ire of her new station chief and his team.
Spy shows are everywhere you look on TV these days, but Kolstad has more than proven himself adept at putting fresh spins on well-worn tropes, so Candygram could be a sizeable hit for ABC, especially when the episodic marketplace is becoming increasingly dominated by streaming content.