Netflix Teams Up John Wick Director With Raising Dion Scribe for Black Samurai Movie

Chad Stahelski is a stuntman-turned-filmmaker who is best known for helming all of the John Wick movies. The fourth movie in the franchise is finally being released next year, but it's not the only project to look forward to from Stahelski. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Stahelski has signed on to direct Netflix's adaptation of Marc Olden's Black Samurai novels.

Stahelski will be directing a Black Samurai script from Leigh Dana Jackson, who is best known as the co-executive producer on Raising Dion. Stahelski will also produce the project with Jason Spitz and Alex Young under his 87Eleven Entertainment banner. Other producers include John Schoenfelder and Russell Ackerman of Addictive Pictures. According to THR, Olden wrote eight blaxploitation books in the 1970s that follow Robert Sand, an American soldier in Japan who learns the ways of the Samurai. While it's unclear how they are adapting the books, the first novel is about Sand on a mission of vengeance while the sequels were "globe-trotting thrillers that featured power-mad millionaires, black-market warheads, pimps, voodoo priests and a solid gold katana, not to mention an always-climbing body count." 

When Is John Wick: Chapter 4 Being Released?

The wait for the fourth John Wick movie has been a long one thanks to the pandemic. The long-awaited Keanu Reeves film is finally hitting theatres on March 24, 2023. The movie will feature some exciting new additions to the cast, including Donnie Yen (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) and Bill Skarsgård (It and It Chapter Two as well as Japanese-British pop star Rina Sawayama. During a recent interview with Variety, Sawayama talked about working with Reeves and had nothing but praise for the iconic star.

"I really love the process of doing something I've never done – learning to read scripts and getting into a character. But I don't know if I'll ever get used to seeing myself onscreen in that way, to be honest – it's a very different vibe to 'I need to look hot in my music video.' The camera gets so close you can basically see your pulse, it's crazy, crazy close. I watched a preview and I freaked out because it was so f*cking weird."

Sawayama added, "But Keanu was amazing, and exactly what you think he'd be like, so chill. But he looked after me in loads of different ways, very much behind the scenes – not telling me that he was doing something for me, but making sure that it was done. Although him being one of the executive producers means that he had a hand in casting me, so that was really crazy to comprehend."

Are you excited to see Chad Stahelski tackle Black Samurai? Tell us in the comments!