It has been a decade since Keanu Reeves’ John Wick shot his means into the hearts of filmgoers, and Lionsgate is pulling out all of the stops to ensure it’s celebrated correctly. ComingSoon spoke with John Wick administrators Chad Stahelski and David Leitch concerning the making of the film, its theatrical rerelease, and its legacy.
The unique 2014 movie shall be again in theaters on November 3 and 6, permitting many followers to see it in its supposed setting for the primary time, and is getting an Amazon-exclusive Titans of Cult SteelBook launch on November 5, which comes with a number of collectibles and marks the primary time it is going to be out there in Dolby Imaginative and prescient. The John Wick Expertise can also be opening later this 12 months in Las Vegas, which “blends immersive escape experiences and extremely themed cinematic environments to create an interactive journey that transcends actuality.”
“I wish to make an motion film that you simply wish to see it in a theater.”
“We received to create one thing that folks have been simply so enthusiastic about. It’s kind of thoughts blowing that right here we’re 10 years later, 4 movies,” mentioned Leitch, who was humbled and grateful to see the movie again in theaters. “Chad has carried out an unbelievable job with a franchise transferring ahead. I’m actually excited for individuals to see it on the massive display who haven’t, and I’m excited that Lionsgate actually took the time to have a good time it.”
For Stahelski, the theatrical imaginative and prescient is necessary because it was on the core of the sequence.
“I’m a giant theater man. Like if I’m seeing an motion film or one thing with good visuals and nice music, I wanna see it in a theater. It was Keanu’s predominant intention. One of many first issues he mentioned to me [was], ‘I wish to make an motion film that you simply wish to see it in a theater.’ Keanu was one of many largest proponents for theatrical releases I’ve ever met within the trade. So far as being a really inner and introverted man, he likes the film expertise. He desires to sit down in an viewers and expertise the film with individuals.”
Setting the tone with a house invasion
Each Leitch and Stahelski nonetheless love the house invasion scene that introduces the movie viewers to the model of motion that Wick would develop into well-known for.
“I actually like the primary residence invasion, you recognize, when the fellows sneak as much as the home, and it’s the primary time we type of see gun fu,” mentioned Leitch.” I bear in mind being at Improbable Fest when that first occurred, and other people simply dropping their minds over that first piece of choreography. That was a very, actually nice feeling, you recognize?”
That scene additionally options considered one of Stahelski’s favourite kills within the first Wick film.
“I just like the man within the hallway within the very first struggle that he pushes the knife down into. That was our buddy Danny Hernandez. I assumed that was an ideal little enjoyable piece. Apart from that, I’d in all probability say [my favorite kill is] capturing the man over the roof of the automotive as he hits him. It’s at all times fairly enjoyable.
Keanu Reeves is greater than the Baba Yaga
From the stoic supply to the unbelievable motion scenes, John Wick is among the best movie characters to be created within the 2000s. He’s additionally the newest iconic character for Reeves, who has been an motion star for many years and continuously discovered methods to reinvent his profession and be extra than simply “Neo” or “Ted.”
We had labored with Keanu fairly a bit as stunt performers and choreographers after which as second unit administrators, motion administrators. So the truth that he was already hooked up to the film once we received our fingers on the script, it was truly actually thrilling as a result of we knew what we may get out of him and what he would deliver to the desk bodily,” defined Leitch of the collaboration. We had so many concepts of the motion we needed to do as choreographers in arising. With this film, this small of price range, we wouldn’t have plenty of time. You actually wanted somebody who may had the chops. So it was actually kind of an ideal storm that Keanu was hooked up, because the script lent itself to the motion that we needed to do, and we received the chance to direct it.”
Whereas Reeves’ professionalism and expertise as an motion star allowed him to execute the tightly choreographed scenes, it wasn’t all simple. Leitch says there have been two tough moments to movie, considered one of which was the ending sequence.
“The rain scene on the finish was fairly insane as a result of we didn’t have the power to warmth the rain. It was so chilly. Keanu and Michael [Nyqvist] have been doing most of their motion and so they have been simply freezing. That was a difficult one.
“There was one other day, and there’s no stopping on a film like this since you don’t actually have a studio to say, ‘Hey, we want one other day,’ or there’s an insurance coverage day. It’s an impartial movie. There’s one other day the place Keanu had the flu actually unhealthy, and he needed to struggle by means of. We have been within the membership scene and he was simply sick as a canine. He fought by means of the choreography. I don’t even understand how he did it. He’s such a champ. It’s insane.”
Reeves’ now-iconic efficiency because the Baba Yaga is simply as well-known for his line supply because the “gun fu” that he used within the struggle scenes. Stahelski defined that they needed a mix of Japanese samurai movies, akin to Zatoichi and Kurosawa motion pictures, after which soft-spoken Western heroes like Clint Eastwood portrayed.
“[Wick] solely speaks when he has to, and I believe that’s very Keanu,” Stahelski mentioned. “So he introduced plenty of that. He would wipe out his dialogue or rephrase to make it as environment friendly as attainable. We additionally type of knew what sort of hero we needed to see as a result of that type of hero wasn’t very prevalent in cinema on the time we have been making this. So we needed extra of the stoic seventies type of vibe. Like how Lee Marvin, Charles Bronson, and Clint Eastwood had been. Keanu, we had these talks, and he simply type of nailed it.
“Yeah, I’m considering I’m again”
Maybe probably the most iconic sequence within the first movie is when Wick is tied as much as a chair and plainly he’s met his finish by the hands of Michael Nyqvist’s Viggo. Nevertheless, he finds a will to reside and struggle again and delivers an unbelievable speech. Reeves screams, “Individuals hold asking if I’m again, and I haven’t actually had a solution. However now, yeah, I’m thinkin’ I’m again!”
Whereas it’s an unbelievable sequence, it isn’t truly how the administrators initially supposed the scene to be.
“We had a a lot greater imaginative and prescient for that, however once more, we have been operating out of money and time. So we received this previous financial institution exterior of New York that was being refurbished. It was nonetheless in the course of being refurbished. We’re like, ‘Oh, it is a cool place.’ We had no time to decorate it. We’re like, ‘Lay down some plastic. We’ll make it a building web site.’ Jon Sela, our DP on the time, did some cool lighting,” Stahelski defined.
“We hadn’t actually had a lot of an opportunity to rehearse with Michael Nyqvist and Keanu all tied to the chair. We sat and found out how Willam Defoe’s character was gonna save the day as a result of we didn’t have him that day, so we needed to make it a sniper shot. We have been going by means of it, and we had carried out virtually 8-10 takes. Dave and I have been listening, it was extra [subdued] as, ‘Yeah, I’m considering I’m again. Higher let me go.’
“We’re type of there. Then Keanu stops, and he goes, ‘What?’ We’re like, ‘Effectively, I don’t know. Would you do yet another?’ and he’s like, ‘Okay, certain. Completely. What do you want?’ We’re like, ‘Are you able to simply go?’ He’s like, ‘You need me to go loopy?’ We’re like, ‘When you don’t thoughts.’ He’s like, ‘You need loopy loopy?’ We’re like, ‘Yeah, throw it away. Go massive.’ He’s like, ‘I’m gonna go massive.’ That’s the take within the film. He simply goes. He’s screaming. The [prior] take was not even half that, and he simply goes massive. Dave, Basil [Iwanyk], the producer, all of us take a look at one another and go, ‘Yep, that’s it.’ We even knew that was within the trailer. We simply knew that was it.”
That pivotal John Wick scene has develop into a favourite on-line, as each a response gif and for memes. “[The reaction] was nice. It was shocking,” mentioned Leitch of Wick’s permanence on-line. “I believe we have been each shocked. We knew we’d put our coronary heart and soul into this and we’d thought we created one thing that folks would get pleasure from. However I don’t know if we ever thought we created, collectively, all of us, and I believe Keanu included, that we created an iconic character. It’s nonetheless just a little bit thoughts blowing that he exists now in type of popular culture as a typical factor.”
John Wick’s early cuts weren’t effectively obtained
Ten years later, the identification of the John Wick franchise is well-established. When you return and watch all 4 motion pictures in a row, it’s remarkably constant in tone. Nevertheless, whereas the directing duo knew what they needed, it wasn’t simple to attain of their directorial debuts.
“The tip product is what you see, like, and we’re very happy with it. We didn’t fairly intention for that tone. We all know we needed type of an anime-pushed actuality, hyper-real tone. We all know we have been going for one thing like that. The way to get it? We weren’t actually certain. So, having Keanu and the best way Keanu performs the character of being just a little stoic and fewer is extra type of factor. Actually, we had an preliminary intention, and coming from a second-unit world while you do plenty of extra pictures or cleanup jobs, you at all times discover out issues which are normally improper with movies; by the point we had gotten to them, it was pacing or your tone,” defined Stahelski.
“You’re at all times looking for pacing or your tone, after which there’s logic from, but it surely was at all times tone. That’s why you see sure motion pictures and it feels prefer it’s three totally different motion pictures all stitched collectively. So we have been very conscious of that, but it surely didn’t cease us from messing up. I bear in mind being in put up on that going, ‘Is that this a thriller? Is it an motion film? Or is that this an anime? Is that this too ridiculous? He’s holding a lifeless stuffed pet. He’s killing 80 individuals. I believe we jumped the shark.’
“Considered one of our first little family and friends screenings went horribly. It was plenty of our mates tapping us on the shoulders, going, “Yeah… Good work.” It didn’t land rather well. It was in all probability midway by means of editorial that we began actually condensing. It was simply at some point, we put the precise music on, and we discovered the type of tone. We modified just a few issues and actually shaved down the opening and actually type of centered on Keanu and simply type of landed on the tone and it type of labored.
“I want I may inform you we have been inventive geniuses with a imaginative and prescient from the beginning, but it surely was plenty of round at the hours of darkness and attempting plenty of totally different editorial situations and actually trying to find the tone that we had in our heads that we needed. We simply weren’t schooled sufficient or technically superior sufficient to essentially discover it [at first]. Whether or not it’s by luck, talent, or likelihood, we discovered the tone we have been on the lookout for, and it labored.”
“That was an ideal studying course of for Chad and I,” Leitch defined of the post-production course of. “As a result of as many massive motion pictures as we’d carried out the motion on, on the finish of the day, you shoot the motion as a second-unit director, however you hand it over to the first-unit director, and also you by no means actually sit within the edit room, and need to make these daring decisions and carve out a efficiency. You’re simply handing them the fabric and also you’re like, ‘There you go.’ So this time it was like, it’s all on you. I believe it was an enormous studying curve.
“We had an ideal mentor in that, Elísabet Ronaldsdóttir was our editor, and he or she was a really skilled editor. She got here in and helped us make decisions, challenged us as administrators to be like, ‘Perhaps you don’t want that scene. Perhaps that is higher. It’s higher to let this breathe, or typically much less is extra.’ I believe as we tightened the film and he or she whittled it down, we discovered the essence.”
“He’s killing 80 individuals. I believe we jumped the shark.”
Leitch additionally credit the script written by Derek Kolstad for serving to information the minimalist nature.
“Once we take a look at a few of our favourite movies, like westerns, a Sergio Leone Western, they’re so minimal in nature, however they’re doing a lot. We have been attempting to take that strategy with what we had, and a few of it got here from the script. I assumed Derek had a very elegant, kind of minimalist strategy to the script that allowed us to place our imprint on it. A few of it got here from the collaboration with our cinematographer, Jonathan Sela, who understood what we have been attempting to perform and actually helped us create a non-verbal storytelling, like an image’s price a thousand phrases. That’s what’s nice concerning the first act. There’s not plenty of dialogue actually, however you’re actually getting every little thing you might want to find out about this man,” mentioned Leitch.
“We’re setting the emotional hook with the canine, with the letter from the spouse, the funeral. It’s all imagery, proper? In order that lent itself too to the field that we have been constrained in. We had plenty of expertise and been on plenty of units with plenty of administrators and mentored by plenty of nice individuals. I believe we knew we had an strategy that we have been saying, ‘This value is difficult, but it surely additionally provides us a possibility to do one thing that’s within the type of a modern-day Western.’”
Making magic with nice actors
Whereas the script guided Stahelski and Leitch, many signature moments and small touches got here from the minds of the movie’s gifted forged. Leitch praised working with Willem Dafoe because it helped them be taught that nice actors include plenty of concepts.
“They’re taking good care of a personality at a stage that you simply don’t actually have the bandwidth for as a director. [Dafoe] actually got here in with some fascinating character concepts for that character, and watching him work was wow. It was like appearing faculty,” admitted Leitch. “I bear in mind the scene the place he’s assembly Michael on the door, and he desires to be juicing. It was simply speculated to be [that they were] gonna meet for breakfast or no matter. He went, ‘No, I wanna be in my bathrobe, and I wanna have a juice.’ Including these fascinating character issues to him was at all times so compelling.”
Stahelski showered reward on the late Lance Reddick, who was one of many first folks that was forged in John Wick apart from Reeves.
“[Reddick] was in New York on the time. We requested him to return down and speak to us. We had carried out one fast name. He reveals up. He’s like, ‘I received a brown swimsuit. I received a blue swimsuit. I believe that is the character, and by the best way, I’m gonna have a Senegalese accent from Africa. That is my character. His backstory was…’ He had all of it,” gushed Stahelski.
“Pitching the film to different forged members was just a little tough. If I’m pitching to you, ‘Effectively, I received this motion film. It’s Keanu Reeves. He kills 80 individuals ’reason for a pet, and there’s this bizarre underworld, like a Greek delusion.’ It’s not a simple promote with two first-time administrators. Some individuals received it, some didn’t. The individuals which are within the film, they really received it. Lance didn’t even [question it], he was similar to, ‘Yeah. I completely get it. I’m Charon, the ferryman. I’m from mytholog. I’m the gatekeeper. I get it.’ We’re like, ‘Oh, that was simple.’
“That’s why he’s in each film. He was our first anchor to it, after which Ian McShane, Willem Dafoe, and all of the forged that we had put collectively since. Plus the gentlest man you’ll ever wanna meet. Skilled, at all times on time, at all times received the scene. It’s humorous, him and Ian McShane collectively, at any time when they have been working, they’d at all times be on set. They by no means went. They stayed on set all the day, talked to the crew, knew all people’s identify. They needed to see the making of it, whether or not they’re within the scene or not. They loved watching us make John Wicks. So, if you wish to have a superb day on set, invite Lance and McShane, and also you had a very good day on set. There’s only a good vibe when the forged is into it, and it’s not only a job, it’s not a gig, it’s an expertise that they don’t wanna miss out on. You’re making magic at that time.”
Two smaller scenes which have stood the take a look at of time contain professional wrestler Kevin Nash and veteran actor Thomas Sadoski. As for Nash, he was a pal of one of many producers and was an ideal option to play a Russian bodyguard who was mates with Wick.
“Kevin had that basically, actually dry learn. Like he didn’t attempt to be powerful,” Stahelski defined. “He was simply this massive imposing man as effectively. You possibly can see him like, he truly does this nice little factor each time I watch it. He type of swallows, and he simply goes, “Oh, Mr. Wick. Thanks, Mr. Wick.” We had overwritten the scene, and him and Keannu simply ripped it to these simply actually tight little three or 4 strains. We received carried out and we actually shot that. The solar was arising. We simply blacked out this little little scaffolding factor in New York and shot it in like an hour.”
Considered one of Stahelski’s favourite scenes is with Sadoski, who he was a fan of watching on The Newsroom. Nevertheless, how Sadoski and Reeves performed off one another shocked the administrators as Sadoski’s Jimmy the cop responded to a “noise criticism” after Wick received right into a gunfight at his home.
“I had one factor in my head about how he’s gonna play it. Once more, the evening’s going, you’re attempting to make your day and stuff. So we’re blocking the scene, and Keanu involves the door. We thought Keanu was gonna play it barely totally different. Keanu goes to the door, extremely deadpan critical. He goes, ‘Hey, Jimmy. Noise criticism?’ God bless Tom as a result of he didn’t miss a beat. He’s like, ‘Noise criticism.’ They underplayed a lot that we’re like, ‘Okay, reduce.’
That was superior. It was a kind of candy little scenes that in a script it reads prefer it’s a throwaway. It virtually reads such as you simply gotta get it to get [on with the story]. As a substitute, it turned the pivotal second the place we shift worlds. That’s the scene the place now we have our cinematographer change lenses, change lighting, and change all that stuff. So now you’re going into the John Wick world now. We’ve modified full palettes. That turned our mild change. So I at all times bear in mind Jimmy as he’s the guardian of the Wick world.
Paving the best way for motion administrators
Leitch and Stahelski’s success has led to extra stuntmen getting probabilities in Hollywood, akin to The Killer’s Recreation director J.J. Perry, who was a stunt participant in John Wick. Perry, who has identified them each for the reason that 90s, believes it’s simply the beginning for the neighborhood.
“Watching my two bros, my two classmates come up has made me tremendous proud. I wouldn’t have been capable of direct my first film if it wasn’t for Chad Stahelski,” mentioned Perry. “So I’m tremendous grateful for him and them, and I’m tremendous excited to see what they do subsequent. I believe that the glass ceiling is about to interrupt as a result of there are plenty of younger women and men on the market who come from our background and may do that job very effectively. The best way that visible results administrators have been large within the early millennium is the best way that I believe motion administrators are gonna begin popping out now.”
Whereas the John Wick administrators might need kickstarted the present pattern, Leitch made certain to pay respect to the previous stuntmen who discovered success behind the digital camera.
“Effectively, I believe what’s actually satisfying is you letting the world kind of see the storytellers that the stunt neighborhood is. Yeah, we’re on the forefront of this motion,” mentioned Leitch. Proper now, at the moment, there are individuals prior to now like Jackie Chan who got here from stunts and have become an ideal storyteller, and Hal Needham and the others who have been stuntmen who turned administrators after which the unique filmmakers, from Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton, all stunt performers that have been cinema’s first nice administrators. It’s actually enjoyable to see this subsequent technology be accepted because the storytellers that they need to be.”
Stahelski continues to enhance
Whereas Stahelski is happy with the primary John Wick film, he admits that the perfectionist in him would do issues very in another way now.
“Look, I’d reshoot half the film if I may, understanding what I do know now about lenses and lighting and tips on how to change it,” admitted Stahelski. “However on the finish of the day, I’m going again and I’ve watched it pretty just lately, I’m fairly happy with it. I attempt to be as sensible as I can. At the moment, I do know that’s the most effective we may do as a result of we didn’t quit. I do know the quantity of effort, stress, and time we put in at the moment. I really feel like we weren’t held again. I really feel like we got a good go and I felt like that was the most effective we may do in comparison with what now we have realized and know now.
“I really like the primary film, however hopefully, you take a look at John Wick and John Wick 4 and go, “Effectively, that man type of realized one thing. You bought just a little higher.” I hope to be environment friendly or to deliver a extra luscious sense of fashion or shade or some type of cohesive nature or thematics that someway punch up. I’d hate so that you can watch the identical 4 motion pictures. I’d prefer to see 1, 2, 3, 4, and hopefully every little thing we do subsequent to be an growth in a optimistic means ahead.”
