It’s no secret that the “John Wick” spin-off “Ballerina” had some serious issues during test screenings, so much so that the Len Wiseman-directed film had to undergo extensive reshoots which pushed back the film’s release by a year.
New cast members like David Castaneda and Sharon Duncan-Brewster were added during the reshoots this past Summer with “John Wick” main entry director Chad Stahelski said to be ‘guiding’ those new sequences alongside Wiseman.
Now a new report at The Wrap indicates the filming issues and subsequent reshoots have had an understandable consequence – they have delayed production on Stahelski’s “Highlander” reboot by approximately five months.
The source claims Wiseman’s initial cut was deemed sub-par and so Stahelski was called upon to himself reshoot most of the finished movie with the reshoots spanning 2-3 months in Prague.
Their insider says: “Chad is going to do Highlander, but cleaning up Ballerina pushed him by five months for sure… this film is basically John Wick 3.5.”
That could explain the news the other day that Cavill has opted to star in Amazon MGM’s “Voltron” film to fill in the hole he now has in his scnedule.
Ana De Armas, Norman Reedus, Ian McShane, Anjelica Huston, Gabriel Byrne, Catalina Sandino Moreno, the late Lance Reddick and Keanu Reeves among others star in “Ballerina” which is scheduled to hit theatres on June 6th 2025.
Update: Lionsgate has reached out with some further details about the film’s reshoots, denying the claims of the report. According to the studio, Wiseman led the additional photography on set in Budapest with Stahelski on hand to “help in the creation of action design on the new scenes that would enhance the film and create bigger action sequences.”
Stahelski’s involvement is said to have been important to Wiseman and they say that the sequences were completed in less than one month and were part of relatively standard additional photography.
They also add that during the reshoots, Wiseman suffered a serious health issue and was briefly hospitalized. During that time, Stahelski covered Wiseman’s scenes. Wiseman has since recovered and has been back finishing the film alongside producer Stahelski, Thunder Road, and the filmmaking team.
