"John Wick" Director Chad Stahelski Finds Next Action-Thriller "Classified" at New Line Cinema

Exciting news for those of us who can't get enough of the action from the "John Wick" franchise as the director of those three films land his next action-thriller to direct at New Line Cinema, which is currently titled "Classified" and will be penned by Andrew Deutschman and Jason Pagan ("Project Almanac", "Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension").

The project was pitched by Stahelski and describes the project as a “high octane, cat-and-mouse thriller, in the vein of ‘Die Hard’ meets ‘Indiana Jones,’ set inside a top secret government bunker that contains relics covertly recovered during World War II — that turn out to be more powerful and dangerous than ever imagined” (via TheWrap).

Stahelski has quite the sleight lined up as he's in the early stages of development with the 4th "John Wick" film and a reboot of the cult classic "Highlander", which sounds like a fan boy project for him having expressed his love for the cult classic since he first saw it while in high school.

I am excited for any project that Stahelski is attached to direct because his approach to directing action scenes is that similar to Jackie Chan where the action plays out in a wide shot with minimal cuts. Jackie Chan was revolutionary with perfecting action sequences with few cuts as possible and would do up to a hundred takes of him kicking a shoe that flies through the air and hits the enemy in the face in a wide shot because he knew how much more of a "Wow Factor" it would provide to the audience versus kicking the shoe and cutting to a close of the enemy getting hit in the face.

The Jason Bourne Franchise popularized the fast cutting and close up shots during a fight scene to add more of a "danger and excitement" feeling to it but to me it just hides a lot of the choreography and makes it challenging to catch all of the action going on. Chad Stahelski and David Leitch brought the minimal cuts during action scenes back into the spotlight with the first "John Wick" film, which they co-directed together and both continue to use that approach in each film they direct. So bring on the action Stahelski and I'll bring on the microwaved popcorn, as I'm very much looking forward to the next "John Wick" adventure and the other action projects you have in store for us.

News of the project was first reported via Deadline