Action Movies Nobody 2, Violent Night 2, and With Love Get Promising Updates
Ball up your fists and load your favorite firearm because 87North is ready for action. The production company run by former stuntman and John Wick co-director David Leitch and Kelly McCormick has three films in the pipeline – not including The Fall Guy, starring Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt and directed by Leitch, which comes out this May – and they just got some updates. Speaking to Collider at the South by Southwest film festival, Leitch and McCormick provided timeframes for the sequels to two of the studio’s films, Nobody (about a former assassin who is drawn back into his old violent world when his new family life strips away his manhood) and Violent Night (wherein Santa Claus has to fight a team of terrorists who’ve taken a family hostage on Christmas Eve). McCormick said:
“We are planning on returns to those universes. Hopefully, honestly, even potentially end of this year for Nobody 2 and, beginning of next year for Violent Night 2, if we can find time in everybody’s busy schedules. But the development’s going super well and everybody’s really, really excited about moving those worlds forward.”
Additionally, Leitch said that Universal, which distributed the films, is “really invested” in turning Nobody and Violent Night into franchises, with McCormick revealing that scripts for Nobody 2 and Violent Night 2 are “being written. We’re well into a couple of drafts and things are going super well, but there’s still a little work to do.” I’m happy to hear this; I liked Nobody a lot, and I absolutely loved Violent Night, and while I’d prefer 87North focus on original action movies instead of turning everything into a franchise, I’d be lying if I said I’m not excited to see these great characters (Hutch “the Auditor” Mansell and… you know… Santa Claus) again.
87 North is also working With Love, starring Ke Huy Quan, recent Oscar winner for Everything Everywhere All at Once and former Short Round in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. This movie was announced in January with no details other than that Quan would be the lead and that it would be directed by Jonathan Eusebio, another guy with a background in stunts who worked on films like John Wick, Blade II, Collateral, and a couple of Bourne movies. Now, we’ve got a release date, as The Hollywood Reporter reveals that With Love will arrive in theaters on February 7, 2025. Perhaps they’re going for some Valentine’s Day counter-programming, which is an awesome idea; with that title, I assume there will be a romance at the center of the action. If you’ve got a girl who wants to see this instead of whatever romantic comedy they cobble together next year, hold onto her.
