After the massive success of the two "John Wick" movies, Lionsgate is looking to expand film's universe to include more titles, starting with "Ballerina," a newly purchased script about a young female assassin.
The company won a bidding war to pick up the script, which was written by 23-year old Shay Hatten, who works as a writer's assistant at Robert Downey Jr.'s production company Team Downey. The story revolves around a young woman who was raised as an assassin, and is hunting down the people who killed her family.
They would have to revamp the story, however, to work it into the universe that the two "John Wick" films have established.
The 2014 surprise hit "John Wick" told the story of another assassin, played by Keanu Reeves, who comes out of retirement to exact revenge on the people who stole his car and killed his dog. The film was a great commercial and critical success, earning more than $88 million worldwide against a budget of $20 million.
Its success spawned an even more successful sequel, "John Wick Chapter 2," which earned over $171 million against a $40 million production budget. It also expanded the universe of the films, which will be further explored in the third installment.
David Leitch, the director of the first film and a producer in the second, said he would love to see a crossover between "John Wick" and his new project "Atomic Blonde," which stars Charlize Theron. He said he would like to see Reeves and Theron either partner up or go toe to toe.
Theron first gained Hollywood attention portraying Reeves' wife in the 1997 film "The Devil's Advocate."
The only creative stumbling block facing the possible crossover is the timeline. "Atomic Blonde" is set in 1989 near the end of the Cold War and the fall of the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, the "John Wick" series appears to be set in the present time.
However, with the addition of the new script "Ballerina" and the third "John Wick" coming up, the writers may have ample material to create a universe that could accommodate the collaboration.
