The next John Wickk the wait will be worth it. That was the message from Lionsgate at CinemaCon 2024 when it dropped all of the new footage John Wick presents Ballerinanow out in June 2025, starring Ana de Armas, Keanu Reeves, Ian McShane, Anjelica Huston, Lance Reddick, Gabriel Byrne and Norman Reedus.
Originally planned for publication The June 7thLionsgate delayed the film for a full year because fan anticipation was so great that the company wanted to do so make it even bigger and better than it already was. And so it was pushed back to add more set pieces to add to the action. However, the action already shown in the footage shown at CinemaCon was pretty impressive on its own, so it’s crazy to think it’ll get even bigger.
In the footage, we see De Armas sitting with a ballerina music box and thinking about her childhood as a dancer on stage. Anjelica Huston’s character from the predecessor wick Films talks to her and says her childhood was taken away from her and she has to fight to get it back. And that’s literal, as it includes footage of her training in mixed martial arts, with weapons and more. She also gets elaborate tattoos on her back in a room full of other trainees.
We see the character arrive at the Continental and give Lance Reddick’s character a coin. She is greeted by Ian McShane’s character Winston as she enters a room in the hotel and pulls out a bunch of weapons. This all takes place between John Wick Chapter 3 And 4.
She is, of course, on a mission of revenge and apparently has to fight her way through an entire city led by a character played by Gabriel Byrne. We see her talking to a character played by Norman Reedus, who tells her that she has no idea what she’s getting herself into. Whatever it is, it requires her to wield a giant flamethrower from the back of a moving pickup truck. She shoots flames into the vehicle, around it and more.
Finally a train pulls up and a man gets out. “You are him,” says the ballerina. “The man they call Baba Yaga. How do I start doing what you do?” A few more cuts of action and we reveal Keanu Reeves as John Wick. “Looks like you already did.”
ballerina was Lionsgate’s biggest genre film on display, but there were a few others that looked very promising. The first is called Never let goDirector: Alexandre Aja (Crawl), produced by 21 rounds (Stranger Things) and starring Halle Berry. It is a horror film set in an apocalyptic future and tells the story of a mother who has twins born after the end of the world. For this reason, they can only leave the house if they have a rope tied around them that is connected to the house. “One touch without a rope is enough,” says Berry’s character about the evil out in the world. So say it with us: “Never let go.”
Of course, they are still children, and since they have normal curiosity, they decide to keep climbing the rope. At some point the rope breaks and something attacks. One of the boys tells Mom that it may be safe now, but she explains that this is what evil wants to convey to them. There are very creepy images throughout, such as a dozen hands wrapped around a tree and climbing up it like a spider.
At the event, Berry called the film completely original and a “dark, beautiful nightmare.” We are curious. The release will take place on September 27th.
Finally, comedian Aziz Ansari is back with a new film that he wrote, directed and stars in Luck. In the film, Ansari plays a down-on-his-luck guy doing odd jobs when he almost becomes an assistant to a super-rich asshole played by Seth Rogen. One day, Ansari’s character meets an angel named Gabriel, played by Keanu Reeves. Gabriel wants to help the character by showing him that his life isn’t as bad as he thinks and that Rogen’s life isn’t as good as it looks from the outside.
So he swaps their lives. trading venues meets It’s a beautiful life. Ansari becomes a rich asshole and Rogen becomes a poor assistant. Gabriel hopes this will show Ansari that life is about more than just material possessions, except…he disagrees. Ansari’s character loves his new life and wants to keep it.
This causes a problem among the angels as Gabriel cannot switch roles until Ansari wants him to. As a result, he loses his wings and is forced to lead a normal life. Before that happens, however, Rogen’s character leaves his memories behind and a battle of wits ensues between the two men, with Gabriel in the middle.
Ansari is still working on the film and even has a few more shoots to go, but seems very proud and excited about what looks like a solid mix of comedy, pathos and drama. There’s no release date yet, but it should be next year.
Which of these genre films do you find most fascinating?
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