John Wick’s Chad Stahelski Tackling Calexit Movie

Calexit, the seemingly ripped-from-the-headlines comic from indie publisher Black Mask Studios, may be taking the idea of the California Resistance to the big-screen.

Chad Stahelski, the filmmaker behind the John Wick movies, is attached to produce, with an eye to direct, a feature adaptation of the comic.

Alex Young, Stahelski’s partner at 87Eleven Entertainment, will also produce as well of Matteo Pizzolo, Brett Gurewitz, and Brian Giberson of Black Mask. The project is not yet set up at a studio or streamer.

Pizzolo, who is Black Mask’s co-founder and president and who co-created the comic, wrote the script on spec.

The story is set in a near (and eerily familiar) future where America’s {resident signed an executive order to deport all immigrants, with California responding by proclaiming itself a sanctuary state. As the citizens of the state struggle to seize power back from an autocratic government, the story centers on Jamil, a war zone courier/smuggler, and Zora, a young leader in the Mulholland Resistance, who attempt to escape Occupied Los Angeles, a city under martial law.

The comic debuted in 2017 and proved to be a hot seller during the first Trump administration, going through seven printings and launching spinoffs Calexit: All Systems San Diego and Calexit: Our Last Night in America. Proving to be more timely than ever, a new storyline kicks off this week with Calexit: The Battle of Universal City, written by Pizzolo and drawn by Carlos Granda. It hits stories today.

The title previously sold to MRC in a five-studio bidding war for television, with a pilot spec also written by Pizzolo. It was optioned and then purchased, but ultimately the property and spec reverted. It’s now finding new life during the second Trump administration and being re-developed as a feature.

Amancay Nahuelpan, who co-created the comic and drew the first volume, is co-producing.

Black Mask has grown a library of 100 comics and graphic novels that like to take a modern and inclusive sensibility. Among the titles, Black, set in a world where only Black people have super powers, Rogue State, set in a world where militias become the law of the land. The company’s 4 Kids Walk into a Bank has been adapted into a feature by Miramax, PictureStart, and Amazon Studios’ Orion and stars Liam Neeson. The thriller is now in post-production.

On top of directing and producing the uber-hit Wick movies, Stahelski produced its recent spinoff, Ballerina, and the 2022 vampire thriller Day Shift.

Stahelski is repped by WME. Pizzolo and Black Mask are repped by attorney Matt Sugarman at Weintraub Tobin.