David Leitch

Teasers trailer and trailers for trailers are often superfluous and repetitive. But when Universal dropped two brief looks at Charlize Theron in Atomic Blonde earlier this week, I was HYPED. Now the first full trailer has arrived, a restricted NSFW version that has a couple of F-bombs and a sex scene. How awesome is the above trailer? I kid you not, I squealed at my computer screen for about three-fourths of it. Then I watched it again. I’ll let you do the same, come back once you’ve finished.

SXSW 2017 has officially found its closing night film, and with the addition of the upcoming sci-fi thriller Life, this year’s Film program has a proper beginning, middle and end. The new film, starring Ryan Reynolds, Jake Gyllenhaal and Rebecca Ferguson, will debut in Austin next month to formally conclude the fest (which actually keeps going for a few more days, if you have enough energy to stick around), with all three stars present for the big premiere.

Not long after director Tim Miller exited the Deadpool sequel over creative differences with Ryan Reynolds, reports revealed the reason behind the split: Miller, a VFX pro, wanted to make a more polished (and more expensive) sequel, while Reynolds (and screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick) wanted to stick to the scrappy (and less expensive) style that made the first film such a hit. Now, with John Wick co-director David Leitch at the helm, Reynolds and producer Simon Kinberg have offered a quick update on Deadpool 2, including words of praise for Leitch and a promise to make sure the sequel is in keeping with its predecessor.

A few weeks ago, Deadpool director Tim Miller shocked the world  —  or a nerdier and more profane subsection of the world, anyways — by walking away from Deadpool 2. As reporters scrambled to make sense of why Miller would leave one of the breakout franchises of 2016, reports emerged that Miller and star Ryan Reynolds had very conflicting ideas for the upcoming sequel and that 20th Century Fox had thrown their support behind Reynolds’ vision for the franchise. Deadpool 2 was officially in the hands of Ryan Reynolds now, but the film still needed a director, and the hunt was on.

It’s been a rough week for the nascent Deadpool franchise. Last weekend, the original film’s director Tim Miller announced that he would not return to helm the planned sequel despite his fanbase’s widely held assumptions. Miller never signed any paperwork committing him to the project, and clarified his position on Saturday, citing creative differences with star Ryan Reynolds as the key reason for his abstaining. It left the producers in something of a bind, scrambling to lock down new talent before principal photography gets going early next year.

Before Chad Stahelski and David Leitch made their directorial debut, the guys behind John Wick worked as stunt coordinators and second unit directors on films like The Matrix, The Hunger Games and The Wolverine — to name just a fraction of their credits. And while most fans are aware of their movie history, you might not know that the duo also helped Joe and Anthony Russo on Captain America: Civil War, giving them a little assistance with some of their action sequences, of course.

John Wick’s success is largely owed to the directing power of Chad Stahelski and David Leitch, the duo who used their years of experience as stunt coordinators to really amp up the action. The guys have two upcoming action films — John Wick 2 and The Coldest City — but only so much time for both, so Stahelski and Leitch have decided to divide and conquer, with each of them taking on one project instead of two.