Posted in: Lionsgate, Movies | Tagged: ana de armas, Ballerina, john wick, keanu reeves, lionsgate

Ballerina: Ana de Armas Teases Intense Stunt Work With Keanu Reeves

The John Wick spinoff film Ballerina is currently filming, and while we know some returning and new cast members, we don't know much about the story. However, if it's going to be anything like the previous movies in this universe, it will contain some absolutely buckwild fight scenes that are brutal and sometimes even hard to watch. That means they can be hard to film, too, and star Ana de Armas is feeling the after-effects of all of that training. She was recently on The Tonight Show, and she spoke about Ballerina. She didn't give any details about the story, but she did detail that they have about a month left of filming, and she is hurting from the stunts. However, a certain co-star named Keanu Reeves really helps motivate her.

"We've been in Prague filming for four months," de Armas explained. "We still have one more month to go, and I'm in pain. You know, my body, my back, everything hurts. I'm complaining; I'm sore; I'm bruised. Bond was fifteen minutes. This is a whole movie, another level, but the other day, Keanu and I were rehearsing our very difficult stunt scene, and this man is just rolling and throwing me and doing crazy stunts. And I'm like — I can't complain anymore because he is doing it. He truly is the best."

John Wick: From Indie Darling To Franchise Juggernaut

It's still a little amazing that John Wick, the action movie in 2014 where the only real notable thing about it was that they managed to snag Reeves as its leading man, has turned into the franchise juggernaut it is today. That is what happens when you have good people working on a film from the beginning because it would have been easy for John Wick to fade into obscurity with a ton of other disposable action movies. However, the creative team of director Chad Stahelski and screenwriter Derek Kolstad took the time to build a fascinating world around that action movie. The world of John Wick is the thing that everyone fell in love with on top of the fact that Reeves is the best at this.

So it wasn't surprising that a sequel was greenlit, and it was even less surprising that in 2017 it was announced that a spinoff film and television shows were in the works. The Continental will focus on the hotel that plays a central part in the assassin world that John Wick moves in, and Ballerina will be something different. Len Wiseman was brought on to direct with Wiseman & Shay Hatten and Emerald Fennell working on the screenplay, and Hatten also has a story credit. We still don't know much about the film, and it doesn't have a release date, but filming has begun. The cast includes de Armas and returning John Wick players Keanu Reeves, Ian McShane, Anjelica Huston, and Lance Reddick. We also have some new faces, including Norman Reedus, Catalina Sandino Moreno, and Gabriel Byrne.  So maybe late 2023 to mid-2024, depending on how quickly they can finish shooting and wrap up post-production. Now that they are shooting, maybe we will learn more about the plot of this mysterious film as well.

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