Chad Stahelski kicked off his career in Hollywood doing stunt work, but he made the jump to directing with 2014’s John Wick, which he co-helmed with David Leitch. While Leitch has since moved on to movies like Atomic Blonde, Deadpool 2 and Hobbs & Shaw, Stahelski is still holding the directorial reigns on the John Wick franchise, although he has a number of other projects in development. The latest of the bunch sounds like if the action in the Indiana Jones movies was jacked up.
Word’s come in that New Line Cinema has won the auction for Classified, an action thriller that Chad Stahelski will direct and produce. According to Deadline, Classified is a “high octane thriller” that was pitched as Die Hard meets Indiana Jones. The story is set in a top secret military bunker, similar to the warehouse where the Ark of the Covenant was stored at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark. This bunker contains relics retrieved during World War II that turn out to be incredibly powerful and dangerous.
Andrew Deutschman and Jason Pagan, whose credits include Project Almanac and Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension, came up with the Classified premise, and the project’s other producers include Jason Spitz and Alex Young from Chad Stahelski’s 87Eleven Entertainment, as well as Trevor Engelson from the Underground production company. Considering what Stahelski has accomplished with the John Wick movies, Classified sounds right in his wheelhouse, as there will surely be a lot of guns fired, fisticuffs thrown and explosions ignited over the course of this story.
However, even ignoring that Classified is in the early stages of development, it’ll likely be a while until this movie hits the big screen. That’s namely because Chad Stahelski is returning to direct John Wick 4 and John Wick 5, which will be shooting back-to-back. A production start date hasn’t been announced, but whenever cameras start rolling on both movies, obviously that will take up a lot of Stahelski’s time.
It’s also worth going over what else Chad Stahelski has on his plate. Since 2017, he’s been attached to direct a Highlander reboot, and in June 2020, he said the project was in “heavy development mode.” Stahelski is also lined up to direct a remake of the South Korean action movie The Man From Nowhere, and John Wick writer Derek Kolstad is penning the script. It’s hard to say whether Classified will arrive before either of these projects or after, but clearly New Line Cinema is eager to eventually deliver this story to the masses.
Naturally we’ll keep you apprised of more Classified updates, but the John Wick fans out there can look forward to the fourth movie coming out on May 27, 2022. The franchise is also set to expand with the Ballerina spinoff and The Continental, a prequel series that will air on Starz.
