The end of January brings a flood of geek movie news.

Lionsgate’s feature film adaptation of Patrick Rothfuss’s fantasy series The Kingkiller Chronicle has landed Sam Raimi for the director’s chair, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Lindsey Beer (Transformers: The Last Knight) is adapting the first book in the series, The Name of the Wind, for the film. Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda is creative producer for the film and TV adaptations of the franchise, the latter of which John Rogers (The Librarians, Leverage) is showrunning (see “Lin-Manuel Miranda's 'Kingkiller Chronicle' Series Gets Showrunner”). Showtime won the bidding war for the rights to the TV series.

Robert Kirkman and Skybound Entertainment are teaming up with Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio, the writers of Despicable Me, to adapt Birthright. for a feature film (via THR). The fantasy series from Joshua Williamson and Andrei Bressan is the third project set up with Universal under Skybound’s first-look deal with the studio (see "Skybound Does Deal with Universal"). Kirkman with produce alongside Skybound’s David Alpert, Bryan Furst and Sean Furst, as well as Jeb Brody (The Mummy, Fifty Shades of Grey).

Legendary’s Detective Pikachu has added another heavyweight: Japanese actor Ken Watanabe (Godzilla, The Last Samurai). He will play Detective Yoshida, a character created specifically for the film according to THR. He joins Ryan Reynolds (Deadpool), who plays Detective Pikachu (see “Ryan Reynolds to Catch 'Em All”), Justice Smith (see “'Detective Pikachu' Gets Date, Goyer on 'MOTU' 'Shazam,' Patrick Stewart in Tarantino 'Star Trek'?”), and Kathryn Newton (Big Little Lies). The film is scheduled to be in theaters on May 10, 2019.

Chad Stahelski will be taking the reins of John Wick once again, directing the third film in the hit action franchise, as confirmed by Collider. Stahelski co-directed the first film in before going solo on the second. Stahelski is also directing a pilot for TV spinoff The Continental, which was ordered by Starz. Star Keanu Reeves will once again enter the complex world of assassins in John Wick: Chapter 3, which is due in theaters May 17, 2019. Dynamite has the license for comics based on the world of the films (see “Dynamite Gets 'John Wick'”) and began releasing a prequel to the first film last fall (see “'John Wick' Comic Prequel Launches”).

The Flashpoint movie has snagged a pair of directors. Spider-Man Homecoming screenwriters John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein are taking over the film, which will star Ezra Miller as the Scarlet Speedster (via THR). The pair take then reins from Rick Famuyiwa, who left in October 2016 over creative differences (see “Warner Bros.' 'The Flash' Loses Another Director”). In turn, Famuyiwa was brought in to replace Seth Grahame-Smith (see “Rick Famuyiwa to Helm 'The Flash' Movie”). A release date has not yet been set.