John Wick star Keanu Reeves is going back to what he does best, fighting bad guys, as the actor joins Netflix's upcoming action movie Maelstrom.

According to Page Six, Reeves is replacing Reacher star Alan Ritchson, who was cast in the project earlier this year but recently dropped out. The reason for Ritchson's departure is unknown. No further cast announcements have been made.

Maelstrom, which is a Nordic word meaning powerful whirlpool, is set to follow a Federal Marshal who is guarding a woman seeking witness protection as she prepares to testify against her ex-fiancé, a crooked arms dealer. However, when a hurricane rolls in, blocking communication from the outside world, the two must both survive through the natural disaster while fighting off the onslaught of men working for the criminal in question.

The project is actually decades in the making. The story was originally penned by the late writer Gregory Fitzpatrick and sold to Warner Bros. in 1993 by producer Jeff Robinov. However, the movie failed to move forward. But since former Warner Bros. Pictures president Robinov signed a new deal with Netflix, the streamer has decided to revive the project.

The upcoming movie is directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, best known for his 2024 Netflix thriller Carry-On and his 2016 shark movie The Shallows. How to Rob a Bank's Mark Bianculli is on board as screenwriter, polishing Fitzpatrick's script. Bianculli and Collet-Serra are also working together on the upcoming remake of the 1993 action movie Cliffhanger.

Funnily enough, Carry-On was also brought back to life by the streamer, after the script lay dormant for 11 years.

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