While talks of epic movie crossovers have existed for a long time, there has hardly ever been any talk of a potential Keanu Reeves v Charlize Theron face-off in their titular John Wick and Atomic Blonde roles. While the idea might seem grand or ridiculous, depending on who you ask, one can also envision the epic scale of battle that could ensue once Theron and Reeves call an all-out war against each other on the big screen.
Considering how John Wick and Atomic Blonde have both become cult classics and iconic in their own right, no wonder the fight would draw in a crowd that is radically wild, enthusiastic, feverish, and energetic.
Charlize Theron Proposes a Battle Against John Wick
It is not every day that Imperator Furiosa walks in and declares a match between John Wick and Lorraine Broughton. But this is exactly what happened when Charlize Theron sat down for an interview with The Hollywood Reporter to talk about her July 2020 film, The Old Guard, which premiered on Netflix, becoming one of the most-watched films on the streamer. Responding to the high audience demand for a reunion with Keanu Reeves, Theron claimed:
“Listen, as soon as I get the call, I’ll be there. They just have to tell me where, when and I’ll show up. Keanu is one of my most favorite people in the whole wide world; I absolutely love him. I respect him, I admire him and I am so grateful that I got to make two movies with him. We both kind of find ourselves in this new stage of our career, and so much of Atomic Blonde was influenced by John Wick. So, if we can get those two characters to meet up in a timeline that makes sense, I’m all about it.”
In other words, the lead actors are already good to go with only a studio needing to lock down the deal to make it happen. With David Leitch directly attached to both projects as a director, Reeves’ talent as a writer (considering how he helped transform the John Wick scripts that were originally meant for a 75-year-old), and Theron’s long and storied career as a producer, the idea might not even be as far-fetched as it sounds upon initial consideration, notwithstanding John Wick’s current status as “not among the living”.
In a fun anecdote, it has also been theorized that Theron has been the inspiration behind Keanu Reeves’ iconic 2014 movie that spawned a massive following. The pair’s commercially and critically panned 2001 film, Sweet November witnessed Theron’s terminally-ill character mailing a dog to Reeves’s character – a plot that gave rise to John Wick’s rise out of a humdrum retirement to a globe-trotting killing spree, that caught the entire world’s undivided attention, ending with 2023’s Chapter 4 installment.
Charlize Theron Gives an Update On Atomic Blonde 2
2017 marked a year of great cinema in the action-thriller genre, especially with the premiere of Charlize Theron’s cult-classic film, Atomic Blonde, directed by David Leitch, as well as Keanu Reeves’ much-anticipated sequel, John Wick: Chapter 2. But while the latter was already keeping audience expectations fed and happy, the first gave rise to a widely asked-for sequel, which to this day remains to see the light of day.
During the course of the pandemic, Theron did give an interesting update about Atomic Blonde 2, claiming that a sequel was “actively developing right now.” But considering that was 3 years ago, and any news of production being green-lit is yet to be heard, the dreams of having Lorraine Broughton back on screen to deliver her rightful justice on the streets and some tense smoke-filled interrogation room drama remains a distant dream.
Elsewhere, Charlize Theron stunned the world with Mad Max: Fury Road, George Miller’s iconic follow-up to the Mel Gibson movies of the ’70s and ’80s. While the films did serve as a reboot of Miller’s original post-apocalyptic chaos, the filmmaker prefers to call his brilliant 2015 vision a “revisiting” of the old saga rather than a remake. Fury Road now holds a rare 97% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
The actress later expressed her disappointment at not being a part of the Furiosa prequel that will star Anya Taylor-Joy in the titular role of a young Imperator.
Atomic Blonde is available for renting/buying on YouTube and Apple TV+
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
