LOS ANGELES: Lionsgate is eyeing to create a ‘John Wick’ cinematic universe after winning the rights to a female-centric spec action script titled ‘Ballerina’.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the studio has won a bidding war to pick up ‘Ballerina’ that will serve as a platform for a possible ‘John Wick’ spinoff.
Basil Iwanyk, whose Thunder Road banner is behind the hit Wick action franchise starring Keanu Reeves, will produce the movie.
The deal marks the first sale for Shay Hatten, a 23-year-old scribe who idolises Shane Black (‘Lethal Weapon’) and is currently working as a writer's assistant for Robert Downey Jr.’s production company, Team Downey.
The film has been described as being in the vein of ‘La Femme Nikita’, the 1990 female-centric assassin movie that helped launch the career of filmmaker Luc Besson, but with a more pulpy, hyper-stylized bent a la Quentin Tarantino or Matthew Vaughn.
Details are being kept under wraps, but the story is known to center on a young woman raised as an assassin who must hunt down the other assassins that murdered her family.
The script hit the studios last week, with Warner Bros. and Universal also vying for it, according to sources.