LOS ANGELES, June 2 — Two pieces of news for fans of Keanu Reeves breakout action thriller John Wick as the threequel retains franchise writer Derek Kolstad, and a fight scene clip arrives ahead of Charlize Theron’s Atomic Blonde from original co-director David Leitch.
Screenwriter Derek Kolstad hit the big time with his treatment for 2014 hit John Wick, starring Keanu Reeves as a retired assassin lured back into action by vengeful enemies.
He was on board for 2016’s John Wick: Chapter 2 and Lionsgate has given him the reins to develop John Wick: Chapter 3.
Director Chad Stahelski has also been involved since John Wick’s first outing, jointly steering that debut with David Leitch before taking charge of the sequel as a solo affair.
Though he is not yet confirmed to helm this next episode, as The Hollywood Reporter points out, he is already co-writing with Kolstad, which makes it likely he will go three for three.
In related news, Leitch’s own full-length debut directorial effort is striding towards a July and August international release, with a longer look at a key fight sequence now available to view.
With Charlize Theron of Monster and Fate of the Furious its lead, a British secret service agent with a revenge motive of her own, the Atomic Blonde shows how she escapes a dawn raid with the use of a rope, a cudgel, a pair of knee-highs and a cassette tape playing George Michael’s Father Figure for the duration.
Setting the film in late 1980s Berlin, previous trailers for Atomic Blonde have made good use of period pop songs, the first two—which contained snippets from this apartment escape — riffing on New Order’s Blue Monday and, in turn, Queen’s Killer Queen and then a mashup combining Depeche Mode’s “Personal Jesus” with 2013 Kanye West track “Black Skinhead” (both Chambaland and FA$HION $EN$E have been linked to the unattributed combination.)
James McAvoy of Split and the X-Men franchise co-stars as agency contact David Percival, with support from John Goodman, Sofia Boutella, Toby Jones and more. It emerged from its South by Southwest premiere with a review score average identical to that of US$88m box office John Wick: 6.9/10 on Rotten Tomatoes (AB, JW); 68 per cent on Metacritic (AB, JW.) — AFP-Relaxnews
