Ballerina (2024 film)

In July 2017, Lionsgate Films acquired Shay Hatten's action thriller Ballerina, with Thunder Road Films producing the film with Hatten rewriting the script to be a part of the John Wick franchise, with the title character, Rooney, ultimately being written into the third main film, John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum in a cameo role ahead of the production of Ballerina, portrayed by Unity Phelan.[10] By October 2019, Len Wiseman was hired to direct the film.[11] In May 2020, Stahelski stated that Wiseman had read the script earlier, and approached the studio with a pitch of how he would develop the project, based on Hatten's draft, for which the proof of concept had previously been uploaded to YouTube in September 2017.[12] Stahelski met with Wiseman, and approached executives to hire the filmmaker. He confirmed that he and his team will work closely with Wiseman on the action sequences and stunts for the film, while acknowledging that Wiseman's filmmaking style will add variety to the franchise. At that point, Wiseman and Hatten were working on a newer draft of the script.[13] By April 2022, the film was officially announced by Lionsgate, with Ana de Armas tapped to star in the lead role.[3] In July 2022, de Armas stated Emerald Fennell was hired to contribute to the script as one of its writers.[14]

Ana de Armas was cast in 2021 to play the titular character, a ballerina-assassin named Rooney.

In May 2020, it was reported that the studio was looking for an actress to star in the film, with Chloë Grace Moretz as the template for the kind of talent they were looking for.[15] By October 2021, Ana de Armas entered negotiations to play the titular character, a ballerina-assassin named Rooney, replacing Unity Phelan, who previously portrayed the character in John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (2019).[16] By April 2022 at CinemaCon, Lionsgate officially announced that de Armas would star in the lead role.[3] In November 2022, it was announced that Keanu Reeves, Ian McShane, Lance Reddick, and Anjelica Huston had joined the cast and will reprise their roles from previous films of the franchise; as John Wick, Winston Scott, Charon, and "the Director", respectively;[9][17][18][5] it also marks the third collaboration between de Armas and Reeves, having previously worked together in Knock Knock (2015) and Exposed (2016). In December 2022, Gabriel Byrne, Norman Reedus, and Catalina Sandino Moreno joined the supporting cast in undisclosed roles.[7][8][4]

Initially scheduled to commence in summer 2022,[3] principal photography officially began on November 7, 2022, in Prague.[19][9][20] Ballerina was in post-production in February 2023.[21]

The music score was composed in collaboration by Marco Beltrami and Anna Drubich, which they commenced in April 17, 2023.[22]