Ava DuVernay has become one of the most prominent and well known directors in Hollywood today. She has a strong following on socaia media and has helmed films from the Oscar winning Selma to Disney's adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time. However, there is one particular area of Hollywood, the tentpole action blockbuster, which Duvernay says she has yet to get an opportunity to make, and she's very interested.
Specifically, the director of the upcoming Netflix miniseries, When They See Us, says that if she'd been offered John Wick Chapter 3, she would have been all over that. According to Duvernay...
I don’t get offered a lot, and what I do get offered is usually historical or something to do with women and black people. Like, I’m not getting John Wick 3, even though I’d love to make it. I have a good friend who directed second unit on Star Wars and is kicking ass. I have a friend who’s on Westworld right now. Are there enough of us? No. Certainly not for a lack of women being interested in or capable.
All three John Wick movies to date have been directed by Chad Stahelski, (the first was a co-directing effort with an uncredited David Leitch). Following three successful films in the franchise, and Stahelski's own comment that he's happy to keep making the films as long as people keep wanting to watch them, it seems unlikely that anybody will be taking over that director's chair anytime soon.
Having said that, Ava DuVernay's broader point, that she's not being offered many movies at all, and especially not of the genre's that tend to have broader audience appeal, is a point well taken. It seems that because DuVernay has made her name thanks to historical biopics and stories about Black people, those are the projects she's being offered.
There have been some exceptions of course. DuVernay made history becoming the first woman of color to direct a movie with a budget over $100 million with A Wrinkle in Time. She's also signed on to direct her first comic book movie with DC's New Gods. Still one would think that with DuVernay's track record there would be studios lining up to offering her work.
As she points out to The Guardian, the number of women and women of color who are working in prominent directing positions is an unfortunately small list. She does mention, Victoria Mahoney, who is the second unit director on Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, so there are steps forward being taken.
While we might not see Ava DuVernay direct a John Wick movie, hopefully someday she'll get a shot a big budget action movie. She could certainly bring a new perspective to the genre that it's never seen before, which might be just the sort of thing that Hollywood needs.
