John Wick director Chad Stahelski has found a writer for his upcoming Warner Bros. assassin movie, Shibumi. Operation Finale writer Matthew Orton, will now pen the script, Deadline reports. The film will be based on the 1979 novel by Trevanian, or Rodney William Whitaker, and provides an interesting take on the skilled assassin trope.
The protagonist of the book is Hel who speaks multiple languages and has traveled the world several times. He grew up in Japan and was trained in the art of ‘Naked/Kill’. This unique form of martial arts discipline requires a resourceful fighter as it emphasizes the use of everyday objects as lethal weapons. The story encompasses a lot of themes both big and small as readers get to know Hel and why he’s become a human killing machine.
Many will know Orton from his work on the Marvel series Moon Knight starring Oscar Isaac (Ex Machina, Dune). He worked with Isaac again on Operation Finale which also featured Ben Kingsley (Ghandi, Shutter Island) as two secret agents on the trail of a Nazi officer who was the brain behind the Holocaust. The British writer has worked for several production companies on various exciting and action-packed stories.
Stahelski and his 87Eleven production company have produced several notable films like Day Shift, a vampire movie featuring Jamie Foxx and Snoop Dogg, and the upcoming John Wick: Chapter 4. Needless to say, he’s a busy man as he’s also doing directorial work on the Project Nemesis series as well as the upcoming Ghosts of Tsushima film.
Shibumi will be directed and produced by Stahelski through 87Eleven along with partners Alex Young and Jason Spitz. No other information about the film has been revealed at this time, including casting details, as the film is currently still in development.
For fans of the hitman and martial arts genres of film and television, or Trevanian’s written work, this will be a great one to check out. The previous work of both Stahelski and Orton has given a bit of an idea of what this film will look like, and it’s a very promising glimpse. Collider’s Steve Weintraub recently spoke with Stahelski about his possible Ghost of Tsushima movie adaptation entirely in Japanese, a clear break from the traditional Hollywood adaptations of foreign media. The full interview can be found below: