Published Sep 5, 2026, 3:00 PM EDT
Ryan Northrup is a Senior Staff Writer on ScreenRant's Movie & TV News team, where he has authored nearly 5,000 articles, including features and reviews. A graduate of McMaster University, Ryan began his career in public relations before attending Vancouver Film School. There, he built lasting industry connections and optioned a feature film screenplay.
John Wick and Bigfoot combine in an upcoming horror movie.
Keanu Reeves first played the eponymous assassin in 2014, launching a franchise that now consists of four main installments, a spinoff, and a TV show. John Wick 5 remains in development, with Reeves and director Chad Stahelski plotting Wick's potential return.
Per THR, those hoping for more Wick-style action may get it from Wildman. Described as "John Wick but with a Bigfoot," Wildman is a script by up-and-coming screenwriter Jacob Rainer that was just picked up by Badlands, the genre arm of Wick production company Thunder Road. The logline for the script teases a truly wild experience:
When his little brother is killed by hunters, Bigfoot goes on a quest to retrieve the body while killing everyone responsible along the way.
Rainer entered the script into a screenplay contest called Blood and Ink on ScriptShadow. Carson Reeves, who runs the website, was intrigued by Wildman, and the script ended up in the hands of Jake Wagner of Alibi Entertainment, who then got in touch with Reiner. Reeves is now attached to produce the film.
It's still early days for Wildman. The project remains in development and doesn't have a release date or any names attached. Badlands itself is also a relatively new entity, and is gearing up for the release of its first feature, Crawlers, on October 16 in the U.S.
John Wick changed action cinema upon its release in 2014, introducing a specific brand of gun-driven action (called "gun fu") inspired by Asian martial arts movies. Since the release of the film and its sequels, action movies have attempted to emulate it to varying degrees of success.
Atomic Blonde (2017), for example, was essentially John Wick during the Cold War with a female lead in Charlize Theron. The film hailed from director David Leitch, who served as an uncredited co-director on the first John Wick. Nobody (2021) starring Bob Odenkirk also clearly owes a great deal to Wick (and features a script by Wick screenwriter Derek Kolstad), as do films like Extraction (2020) and Violent Night (2022).
Wick, however, has never been crossed with the horror genre in quite this way, making Wildman a unique project. If the film is a hit, it could usher in a new sub-genre of Wick-inspired horror movies. From the logline, it seems like Wildman may not be a pure horror movie, and it could end up featuring some impressive action too.
Many questions remain about Wildman, but Badlands picking the film up evidently marks a major milestone for Rainer, given it marks his first ever deal for screenwriting. It's not clear how the project will come together in terms of talent and filming, but the premise alone makes it one to look forward to.
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