Yeah, we’re thinking Keanu Reeves is back.
Reeves is now attached to star in Netflix’s “Maelstrom” for “Carry-On” director Jaume Collet-Serra, TheWrap can confirm.
The project was first sold in 1993 to Warner Bros. during the spec script boom; first-timer Greg Fitzpatrick got a sizable rate but, as was reported at the time, “the project did not sell for as much as some had predicted,” since some had guessed it would go for more than $1 million. Back then it was described as “Die Hard” during a hurricane, part of a concerted effort to stockpile worthy action movie scripts for the stars of the day (an “inventory move”) – among them Sylvester Stallone, Steven Seagal and Clint Eastwood. Renny Harlin was eyed to direct.
Contemporaneous reporting described the script as centering “on a federal agent who is charged with protecting a woman from her husband — a powerful crime boss who has taken a contract out on her life to prevent her from testifying against him. The crime boss hunts them when he discovers their location, just as a hurricane hits.”
More recently Alan Ritchson, who led Netflix’s hit “War Machine” earlier this year, was attached to star but dropped out, potentially to star in that film’s sequel, “War Machines.” Netflix exec Ori Marmur, who was also responsible for “War Machine,” is behind the resurrection of “Maelstrom.”
Jeff Robinov, former Warner Bros. film chief, is producing the film (he was an agent at ICM when he sold Fitzpatrick’s original screenplay). Mark Bianculli, who worked with Collet-Serra on a new “Cliffhanger,” did new revisions on the “Maelstrom” screenplay.
Reeves has a very full dance card, with another “Sonic the Hedgehog” movie due out next year; “The Entertainment System Is Down” from Ruben Östlund and A24; Tim Miller’s high-concept time loop movie (with sharks!) “Shiver;” and an animated “John Wick” prequel film from “Ultraman: Rising” director Shannon Tindle, among many others.
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