Keanu Reeves is getting into the geopolitical thriller business. Deadline reports that the John Wick star is set to lead Kill Current, an adaptation of Oliver Lowe’s upcoming novel Kill Current: A Jon Hendricks Thriller. The project will be financed and produced by The Arena, with Reeves producing alongside Alexandra Grant through their newly announced production banner, Two Dragonflies.
The film marks the first project to emerge from Two Dragonflies, which Reeves and Grant founded to develop stories across film, television, animation, comic books, games, literature, and other forms of art. Molly Stern and her publishing company Zando will executive produce. The Arena, the independent studio launched by former Lionsgate film chief Erik Feig, has preemptively acquired the rights to the novel and will produce the movie.
Kill Current is the first novel in a planned thriller series centered on Jon Hendricks, a burned-out CIA officer who is pulled back into the world of espionage after losing the protégé he trained.
“This project further underlines our focus on launching high-concept IP for global audiences across different media,” said Feig, who leads The Arena as CEO. “Keanu Reeves is a singular talent and synonymous with the kind of intelligent action franchises we are aiming to make. We are thrilled to work with him and Alexandra Grant and equally thrilled that Matt Reilly and Melissa Goodall were able to swoop in and get this!”
Zando founder and CEO Stern added:
“Oliver Lowe’s masterful story, the first in his upcoming Jon Hendricks series, is poised to reinvent the geopolitical thriller for the modern era. Kill Current is rooted in the issues shaping today’s world — semi-conductors, global supply chains, technological and information warfare. It delivers the fast-paced, globe-trotting read and complex, intriguing characters that thriller fans of any era crave.”
Here is the official synopsis for the upcoming novel:
Kill Current is the first novel in a forthcoming thriller series centering Jon Hendricks, a burned-out CIA officer who is pulled back in to avenge the protégé he trained and lost. Offering a globe-spanning, edge-of-your-seat action thriller about shifting alliances and the race for the world’s most precious and valuable assets, the first novel from Lowe is slated for publication by Zando in May 2027.
Reeves said:
“I’m excited and grateful for the opportunity to develop the character Jon Hendricks with these wonderful collaborators and that this is the project that launches Two Dragonflies which I share with my partner, Alexandra Grant.”
Grant added:
“Taking Kill Current from publishing into film form, and aligning with The Arena, Oliver Lowe and Zando is the kind of creative work Keanu and I have set up Two Dragonflies to do.”
Reeves is coming off John Wick: Chapter 4, which grossed nearly $450 million worldwide. The actor is also attached to the John Wick spin-off Caine, starring Donnie Yen, which is in post-production, while a fifth John Wick movie featuring Reeves’ legendary assassin is in development. Outside of the John Wick franchise, Reeves’ upcoming projects include the Tim Miller sci-fi movie Shiver and The Entertainment System Is Down, the upcoming film from Triangle of Sadness director Ruben Östlund.
Lowe is the pen name of writer Casey Stegman, whose fiction has appeared in Tough, Shotgun Honey, Dark Yonder, Cowboy Jamboree, Bristol Noir, and Punk Noir Magazine. One of his stories was recently included in The Best Mystery Stories of the Year, guest edited by John Grisham.
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