John Wick Director Chad Stahelski To Direct Kaiju TV Show Project Nemesis
Heads up, kaiju fans — Jeremy Robinson's "The Nemesis Saga" novels are being adapted for television. The first book in the series, "Project Nemesis," is going to be a television series from Sony TV and Original Film, and here's the really exciting part: "John Wick" co-director Chad Stahelski is at the helm, taking on both directorial and executive producer roles.
Deadline broke the news of the series going into development, though details are limited at this time. The "Project Nemesis" novel was also adapted into a comic book series from American Gothic Press, so Stahelski and whoever ends up writing the series will have plenty of material to draw from.
"Project Nemesis" is a kaiju (giant monster) story with a unique twist that melds mega-monster action with a revenge story: the DNA of Nemesis, the Greek goddess of vengeance, is combined with the DNA of Maigo, a little girl who was brutally murdered. Through some sci-fi fantasy wildness, the result of the union is a rampaging kaiju looking for Maigo's killer across the northeastern United States.
Monster-sized vengeance
Stahelski is pretty highly in-demand, and this is yet another perfect project for the talented action director to tackle. He's directing the upcoming "Classified" for New Line, "Shibumi" for Warner Bros., and "Ghost of Tsushima" for Sony — and let's not forget that "John Wick 4" is still inbound with a March 2023 release date. My god, man!
Here's the official synopsis of the novel, which gives folks a pretty good idea as to the potential plot for the TV series:
Jon Hudson, lead investigator for the Department of Homeland Security's Fusion Center-P, thinks his job is a joke. While other Fusion Centers focus on thwarting terrorist activity, Hudson's division is tasked with handling paranormal threats to national security, of which there have been zero during his years at the DHS. When yet another Sasquatch sighting leads to a research facility disguised as an abandoned Nike missile site in the back woods of Maine, Hudson's job becomes deadly serious.
Hudson and the local Sheriff, Ashley Collins, suddenly find themselves on the run from a ruthless ex-Special Forces security team, but the human threat is short-lived as something very much not-human destroys the facility and heads for civilization, leaving only a single clue behind — a name scrawled in blood: Nemesis. Working with his team at Fusion Center-P, Sheriff Collins, and a surly helicopter pilot named Woodstock, Hudson pursues the creature known as Nemesis, attempts to uncover the corporate secrets behind its creation and accidental release, and tries to comprehend why several clues lead to a murdered little girl named Maigo.
But as the body-count explodes, along with the monster's size, it quickly becomes clear that nothing short of a full military response can slow Nemesis's progress. Coordinating with every branch of the U.S. military, Hudson simultaneously searches for clues about Nemesis's origins and motivations, and leads the counterattack that will hopefully stop the monster before it reaches Boston and its one million residents.
A vengeance-driven kaiju borne of a Greek goddess and a murdered little girl? An "X-Files"-esque Homeland Security division focused on paranormal threats? A helicopter pilot with the same name as a little yellow bird? Sign me up, baby. With Stahelski's action chops, this could be one seriously cool series.