Keanu Reeves has lined up his next thriller. The John Wick star will lead Kill Current, playing a veteran CIA officer who is pulled back into the field after the death of his protégé.
The film is based on Kill Current: A Jon Hendricks Thriller, the upcoming novel from Oliver Lowe, a pen name for writer Casey Stegman. Reeves will play Jon Hendricks, a burned-out CIA operative who has walked away from that life, only for revenge to draw him back into an international conflict involving shifting alliances, technology and global power.
Deadline broke the news, reporting that independent studio The Arena has preemptively acquired the rights and will finance and produce the adaptation. Reeves is also producing alongside Alexandra Grant through their company Two Dragonflies, with Molly Stern and publishing company Zando executive producing.
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Reeves Launches Two Dragonflies with Kill Current
Kill Current will be the first film project launched through Two Dragonflies. Reeves said he was “excited and grateful for the opportunity to develop the character Jon Hendricks with these wonderful collaborators”, adding that he was pleased to have it as “the project that launches Two Dragonflies which I share with my partner, Alexandra Grant”.
The company was established by Reeves and Grant with ambitions across film, television, animation, comics, games, literature and other creative forms. Grant said: “Taking Kill Current from publishing into film form, and aligning with The Arena, Oliver Lowe and Zando is the kind of creative work Keanu and I have set up Two Dragonflies to do.”
A New Action Franchise in the Making?
There may also be room for Hendricks to stick around. Kill Current is the first entry in a planned series of novels, although no movie sequels have been announced at this stage.
The Arena CEO Erik Feig said the project “further underlines our focus on launching high-concept IP for global audiences across different media”, before adding: “Keanu Reeves is a singular talent and synonymous with the kind of intelligent action franchises we are aiming to make.”
A Geopolitical Thriller Built Around Modern Conflicts
The thriller itself appears to be taking aim at some very current pressure points. Zando founder and CEO Molly Stern said Lowe’s story is “poised to reinvent the geopolitical thriller for the modern era”.
“Kill Current is rooted in the issues shaping today’s world — semi-conductors, global supply chains, technological and information warfare,” Stern said. “It delivers the fast-paced, globe-trotting read and complex, intriguing characters that thriller fans of any era crave.”
Lowe’s novel is currently scheduled to be published by Zando in May 2027. Stegman’s previous fiction has appeared in publications including Tough, Shotgun Honey, Dark Yonder, Cowboy Jamboree, Bristol Noir and Punk Noir Magazine, while one of his stories was selected for The Best Mystery Stories of the Year, guest edited by John Grisham.
There’s no director attached to Kill Current just yet. Reeves, meanwhile, continues to have plenty on his slate, including Tim Miller’s sci-fi film Shiver and further developments in the John Wick universe. For now, though, Jon Hendricks gives him a fresh action-thriller character to build from the ground up.
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