Keanu Reeves is stepping into the eye of the storm for Maelstrom, a Netflix action thriller with a history almost as wild as its premise. The John Wick star is taking over the lead role from Alan Ritchson in a project first sold to Warner Bros. back in 1993, when it was pitched as Die Hard in a hurricane.
Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, the filmmaker behind Netflix’s Carry-On, Maelstrom follows a federal marshal assigned to protect the fiancée of an arms dealer who is seeking witness protection. As she prepares to testify against him, a hurricane cuts off communication with the outside world and prevents reinforcements from reaching them. The pair must survive the storm while fighting off the armed men sent to stop her from talking.
It’s an action setup that sounds tailor-made for Reeves, whose filmography includes the John Wick franchise and The Matrix. The hurricane adds a natural-disaster threat to the familiar siege scenario, trapping the characters as danger closes in from both inside and outside their refuge.
Ritchson had previously been attached to star, but has now exited the project. As first reported by Page Six, No reason for the casting change has been publicly confirmed, so it remains unclear why he left or whether scheduling played a role. Keanu Reeves is now set to lead the film, which has not yet announced its full cast or a release date.
The screenplay’s long road to Netflix is one of the more unusual parts of the story. Greg Fitzpatrick originally sold the script to Warner Bros. in 1993, during a period when studios were looking for high-concept action movies in the mold of Die Hard. The project remained unproduced for decades, despite its straightforward hook and the interest that surrounded action specs at the time.
Producer Jeff Robinov was involved in selling the original screenplay while working as an agent at ICM, and he remains attached to the revival. Mark Bianculli, whose credits include How to Rob a Bank, has updated the screenplay based on Fitzpatrick’s original draft.
Netflix’s interest in resurrecting older scripts follows the success of Carry-On, Collet-Serra’s airport-set thriller that became one of the streamer’s most-watched films. The company has been looking for high-concept projects with strong hooks, and Maelstrom offers an easy-to-pitch combination: a protector, a witness who needs to stay alive, a gang of armed pursuers, and a hurricane cutting off any chance of help.
There’s no word yet on when filming will begin or when the movie might arrive on Netflix. For now, Reeves’ casting gives a long-dormant action project a new shot at reaching the screen, more than three decades after it was first pitched.
It’s been a busy two weeks for Reeves, who was last seen in director Jonah Hill’s Apple comedy Outcome. As we just reported a couple days ago, Keanu is circling the lead in James Wan’s The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil Remake. This new report doesn’t indicate if he officially signed on for that one yet. But it sounds like this Netflix project will take precedence. I’ll let you know if that changes.
