John Wick directors David Leitch and Chad Stahelski have signed on to helm Bloodshot, the first film in comic book publisher Valiant Entertainment’s new shared universe.
Since landing a nine-figure investment from Beijing-based DMG Entertainment last month, Valiant has been plotting a five-picture arc involving two movies based on Bloodshot, two based on Harbinger, and then a fifth crossover film, Harbinger Wars. Bloodshot is set for release in 2017, and by the time Harbinger Wars comes out, most likely every film playing in cinemas will be part of a shared universe. Besides Marvel and DC’s shared universes, the marquee could be crowded with movies from Universal’s monster movie shared universe, Cinedigm’s B-movie shared universe, and the Ghostbusters shared universe. Also, aren’t Alien and Blade Runner technically in the same universe? Because there are more of those movies coming too.
Leitch and Stahelski apparently are delaying work on John Wick 2 to direct Bloodshot, which is about “a soldier brought back from the dead by a secret government agency who is turned into an unstoppable killing machine with no memory.” Given Leitch and Stahelski’s previous success with unstoppable killing machines, this project sounds like a good fit. Jeff Wadlow (Kick-Ass 2) and Eric Heisserer (The Thing remake) wrote the script for Bloodshot, and the film will be produced by Neal H. Moritz and Toby Jaffe, who already oversee the Fast And The Furious movies and no doubt hope this will be the start of another lucrative franchise. Maybe they can work out a deal so that the Valiant universe joins the Fast And The Furious one, the first in a 3,111-step process leading to one ultimate summer blockbuster starring every character you’ve ever heard of and probably directed by an elderly Zack Snyder.