Ever since David Leitch made 2014’s John Wick with fellow stunt coordinator Chad Stahelski, his filmmaking career has been on a non-stop speeding course through Hollywood’s biggest blockbuster franchises – recently helming the widely-successful releases Deadpool 2 and Hobbs & Shaw. We’d call his journey a Bullet Train, but that title is already set to be the name of the upcoming action movie Leitch will be directing for Sony.
Among Leitch’s many projects he’s currently juggling, it’s now been announced that he’ll follow up last year’s summer hit Hobbs & Shaw with Bullet Train, a thriller about a group of hitmen and assassins with opposing motives who are all riding the same train to Tokyo. The script, written by Lights Out producer Zak Olkewicz, has been described as a cross between Speed and Non-Stop, per The Hollywood Reporter.
Can’t you picture Bullet Train already? With David Leitch’s attention to highly-stylized stunt choreography and a plot inspired by both Keanu Reeves’ iconic '90s role and Liam Neeson’s action flick aboard a plane, this film could easily become a hit with audiences. Leitch is planning to film the project this fall, if it’s safe to do so by then. Lucky for Bullet Train, the production can be completed on a contained set where safety precautions can be better observed.
We do wonder if the nature of Bullet Train’s production values is why David Leitch is moving forward with this project instead of the number of others he had his name on. In January, it was announced he would be helming a film adaptation of Kung Fu along with possibly being attached to the Atomic Blonde and Hobbs & Shaw sequels. Atomic Blonde 2’s fate is up in the air, but Leitch did note that a streaming service is interested in backing another film led by Charlize Theron’s undercover agent.
David Leitch is also reportedly in pre-production on an action romance called Undying Love, which is an adaptation of a graphic novel about an ex-soldier who falls for a vampire. The only thing between him and his eternal love is an army of monsters in the Hong Kong underworld who protect the vampire’s creator.
Leitch and his wife Kelly McCormick are producing partners who are working together for Bullet Train, the upcoming video game adaptation of The Division for Netflix and another action movie called Fast & Loose from The Meg's writers, which is about a man who wakes up without memories and has to decipher whether his real identity is a crime kingpin or an undercover CIA agent.
David Leitch is making some of the most exciting action flicks right now, and we cannot wait to see what he’ll do with Bullet Train. Due to the scale of the production, it could be one of the few newly announced productions to safely hit the big screen without need for alterations. Stay tuned here on CinemaBlend for more updates for more movie news.
