John Wick filmmaker Chad Stahelski has teamed up with Leigh Dana Jackson, a co-executive producer on kid-with-superpowers series Raising Dion, to tackle Netflix’s adaptation of Marc Olden’s Black Samurai novels.
Stahelski will direct, while Jackson is set to write.
Stahelski will also produce along with Jason Spitz and Alex Young of his banner 87Eleven Entertainment. John Schoenfelder and Russell Ackerman of Addictive Pictures, who were instrumental in securing the rights, are also producing.
Details on Netflix’s take were as thin as the very best katana blades, but Olden’s eight blaxploitation books, published in the 1970s, center on Robert Sand, an American soldier in Japan who learns the ways of the most powerful martial arts and becomes the Black Samurai.
The first novel saw him embarking on a mission of vengeance. The other books were globe-trotting thrillers that featured power-mad millionaires, black-market warheads, pimps, voodoo priests and a solid gold katana, not to mention an always-climbing body count.
Executive producing are Diane Crafford, Liza Fleissig and Andre Gaines for Cinemation Studios.
Jackson has extensive credits in the TV tentpole thriller sphere. He is currently a writer and exec producer on Apple TV+’s Foundation and is also working on an adaptation of Michael Moorcock series The Eternal Champion with David Goyer for the streamer. In features, Jackson is currently co-writing with Chad Handley an adaptation of the Image Comics series Bitter Root for Legendary Pictures that has Ryan Coogler producing and Regina King directing.
Stahelski is currently in postproduction on John Wick 4, which Lionsgate will release March 24, 2023.
Stahelski is repped by WME and attorney Tara Kole at Johnson Shapiro. Jackson is repped by WME, The Gotham Group and attorney Michael Schenkman.
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