‘John Wick’ Director Tackling Ed Brubaker Comic ‘Kill or Be Killed’

Director Chad Stahelski is teaming up with his John Wick producer Basil Iwanyk to bring to the big screen Kill or Be Killed, a comic book from Winter Soldier creator Ed Brubaker.Dan Casey, who previously adapted the Brubaker comic Incognito, now set up at Columbia, is attached to write the script.

Iwanyk will produce with Erica Lee of the duo’s Thunder Road, the company behind awards contender Wind River as well as the Wick action movies. Jeff Waxman (mother!) is also producing. Brubaker will act as executive producer.

The project tells of a depressed college student who attempts suicide. He survives due to unlikely events but is soon visited by a demon who explains that he was the one who spared the student’s life. But there’s a price to be paid: Going forward, the young man will be allowed to live one month for every person he kills.

Sean Phillips draws the comic, which is currently being published by Image Comics.

Brubaker is the prolific comics author perhaps best known for his work that revitalized Captain America in the 21st century and also reintroduced the character of Bucky Barnes as assassin Winter Soldier, who was then featured in Marvel’s Captain America movies.

Brubaker often focuses on the crime and thriller genres and in recent years has garnered acclaim for his comics such as The Fade Out, a Hollywood noir, and Fatale, a supernatural noir. He is repped by UTA and Katz Golden.

Casey wrote Kin, a crime thriller produced by Shawn Levy that Lionsgate is releasing in summer 2018. He is repped by CAA and Writ Large.

Stahelski, repped by WME and Gang Tyre, is the stunt coordinator and second unit director who put his action knowledge to good use with the 2014 breakout John Wick. He followed that up with this year’s John Wick: Chapter Two and is now in preproduction on John Wick: Chapter Three. He is also attached to direct the Highlander remake.

 

 

Source: ‘John Wick’ Director Tackling Ed Brubaker Comic ‘Kill or Be Killed’ (Exclusive) | Hollywood Reporter