MOVIE NEWS – Ana de Armas felt that her upcoming John Wick spinoff, Ballerina, needed a female writer, so she hired Promising Young Woman writer Emerald Fennell.

Ana de Armas revealed that it was vital for her to have a female writer on the team for the upcoming John Wick spinoff, Ballerina, and in the end, none other than the Oscar-winning writer-director of The Promising Young Woman, Emerald Fennell, got the job.

De Armas, who has already made a name for herself in action films with memorable performances in No Time to Die, Blade Runner 2049 and the upcoming The Grey Man, is excited to join the John Wick universe and reunite with her close friend Keanu Reeves, who is executive producing Ballerina. Ana de Armas made her Hollywood debut alongside Reeves in the 2015 thriller Knock Knock.

However, rumours have it that Reeves and Anjelica Huston, who played the leader of the Ruska Roma crime syndicate in John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, will also appear in Ballerina.

Of course, this should not be so surprising, given that both characters are linked to the same criminal organisation as the title character played by Ana de Armas.

Ballerina centres on a young woman raised to be a hitman who must hunt down the assassins who have killed her family. The film is inspired by Luc Besson’s 1990 classic La Femme Nikita and will be directed by Len Wiseman (Underworld, Live Free or Die Hard). John Wick director Chad Stahelski will produce the film and will also be involved in the stunt work. Previously, Shay Hatten (John Wick: Chapter 4, Army of Thieves) was announced as the sole screenwriter, but it is unclear to what extent he will be involved now that Emerald Fennell has joined Ballerina.

Ballerina’s all-male creative team did not appeal to Ana de Armas, who felt that a female writer was needed to provide a proper perspective. In an interview with ELLE, Ana de Armas revealed that she interviewed several writers before settling on Emerald Fennell.

“It was really important for me to hire a female writer, because to that point when I got involved in the project, it was only the director, Len Wiseman, and another guy. And I was like, ‘That’s not going to work.’ So I interviewed, like, five or six female writers. We hired Emerald Fennell, which I was so proud of.”

Emerald Fennell is a British actress, writer and filmmaker who has appeared in The Danish Girl, The Crown and Call the Midwife.

She worked as a showrunner on the second season of Killing Eve and made her feature directorial debut with the 2020 thriller Promising Young Woman, which won her the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Fennell also wrote DC’s Zatanna and will next return to the director’s chair with Saltburn, starring Rosamund Pike, Barry Keoghan and Jacob Elordi.

Ballerina seems to be in good hands and could present a very different approach to the concept of revenge, as Fennell has previously criticised the John Wick films for their excessive violence.

Source: ELLE