We’re not sure why John Wick is the poster boy for action movies these days (to quote Paul Bramhall: “Hong Kong cinema has been doing it for ages”), but it certainly deserves the credit for re-igniting that over-the-top, intricately choreographed shoot ’em up action trend that’s not going to die anytime soon.

Lionsgate has hitched Len Wiseman (Live Free or Die Hard) to direct Ballerina, an female-centric spinoff of the lucrative John Wick franchise.

Up and coming writer, Shay Hatten (John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum), recently sold Lionsgate his script for Ballerina, which involves “a young woman raised as an assassin who must hunt down the other assassins that murdered her family” (via THR). The studio’s plan is to fine tune the story so it fits within the John Wick franchise.

According to Deadline, the picture is being produced by Basil Iwanyk, Erica Lee and Chad Stahelski, with John Wick star Keanu Reeves an executive producer along with Kaley Smalley, head of development for Wiseman’s Sketch Films.

We’ll keep you updated on Ballerina as more news becomes available. For now, we leave you with the Trailer for 1996’s Beyond Hypothermia, one of our favorite female-centric assassin flicks.