It has been a decade since Keanu Reeves’ John Wick shot his manner into the hearts of filmgoers, and Lionsgate is pulling out all of the stops to verify it’s celebrated correctly. todaysviralmedia spoke with John Wick administrators Chad Stahelski and David Leitch in regards to the making of the movie, its theatrical rerelease, and its legacy.
The unique 2014 movie can 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 obtainable in Dolby Imaginative and prescient. The John Wick Expertise can be opening later this yr in Las Vegas, which “blends immersive escape experiences and extremely themed cinematic environments to create an interactive journey that transcends actuality.”
“I need to make an motion film that you simply need to see it in a theater.”
“We acquired 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,” stated Leitch, who was humbled and grateful to see the movie again in theaters. “Chad has performed an unimaginable job with a franchise transferring ahead. I’m actually excited for folks to see it on the massive display who haven’t, and I’m excited that Lionsgate actually took the time to have fun it.”
For Stahelski, the theatrical imaginative and prescient is vital because it was on the core of the sequence.
“I’m an enormous 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 essential intention. One of many first issues he stated to me [was], ‘I need to make an motion film that you simply need to see it in a theater.’ Keanu was one of many greatest proponents for theatrical releases I’ve ever met within the trade. So far as being a really inside and introverted man, he likes the film expertise. He needs to take a seat in an viewers and expertise the film with folks.”
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 turn out to be well-known for.
“I actually like the primary residence invasion, you understand, when the fellows sneak as much as the home, and it’s the primary time we type of see gun fu,” stated 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 extremely, actually nice feeling, you understand?”
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 combat that he pushes the knife down into. That was our buddy Danny Hernandez. I assumed that was an important little enjoyable piece. Apart from that, I’d most likely say [my favorite kill is] capturing the man over the roof of the automobile as he hits him. It’s all the time fairly enjoyable.
Keanu Reeves is greater than the Baba Yaga
From the stoic supply to the unimaginable motion scenes, John Wick is without doubt one of the best movie characters to be created within the 2000s. He’s additionally the most recent iconic character for Reeves, who has been an motion star for many years and always 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 connected to the film once we acquired our fingers on the script, it was truly actually thrilling as a result of we knew what we might get out of him and what he would convey to the desk bodily,” defined Leitch of the collaboration. We had so many concepts of the motion we wished to do as choreographers in arising. With this film, this small of price range, we wouldn’t have quite a lot of time. You actually wanted somebody who might had the chops. So it was actually kind of an ideal storm that Keanu was connected, because the script lent itself to the motion that we wished to do, and we acquired 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 straightforward. Leitch says there have been two troublesome 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 flexibility to warmth the rain. It was so chilly. Keanu and Michael [Nyqvist] have been doing most of their motion they usually 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’d like one other day,’ or there’s an insurance coverage day. It’s an unbiased movie. There’s one other day the place Keanu had the flu actually unhealthy, and he needed to combat by way of. We have been within the membership scene and he was simply sick as a canine. He fought by way of the choreography. I don’t even know the way 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 combat scenes. Stahelski defined that they wished a mix of Japanese samurai movies, resembling 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 stated. “So he introduced quite a lot 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 wished 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 wished 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 it appears that evidently he’s met his finish by the hands of Michael Nyqvist’s Viggo. Nevertheless, he finds a will to reside and combat again and delivers an unimaginable speech. Reeves screams, “Folks maintain 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 unimaginable sequence, it isn’t truly how the administrators initially supposed the scene to be.
“We had a a lot larger imaginative and prescient for that, however once more, we have been working out of money and time. So we acquired this outdated financial institution outdoors of New York that was being refurbished. It was nonetheless in the midst 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 website.’ 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 discovered 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 way of it, and we had performed nearly 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, ‘Properly, I don’t know. Would you do 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, ‘In case you don’t thoughts.’ He’s like, ‘You need loopy loopy?’ We’re like, ‘Yeah, throw it away. Go large.’ He’s like, ‘I’m gonna go large.’ 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 large. 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 turn out to be a favourite on-line, as each a response gif and for memes. “[The reaction] was nice. It was shocking,” stated 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 a little bit bit thoughts blowing that he exists now in kind of popular culture as a typical factor.”
John Wick’s early cuts weren’t effectively acquired
Ten years later, the identification of the John Wick franchise is well-established. In case 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 wished, it wasn’t straightforward 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 wished type of an anime-pushed actuality, hyper-real tone. We all know we have been going for one thing like that. Find out how to get it? We weren’t actually certain. So, having Keanu and the way in which Keanu performs the character of being a little bit stoic and fewer is extra type of factor. Actually, we had an preliminary intention, and coming from a second-unit world whenever you do quite a lot of extra images or cleanup jobs, you all the time discover out issues which can be often incorrect with movies; by the point we had gotten to them, it was pacing or your tone,” defined Stahelski.
“You’re all the time looking for pacing or your tone, after which there’s logic from, but it surely was all the time tone. That’s why you see sure motion pictures and it feels prefer it’s three completely 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 useless stuffed pet. He’s killing 80 folks. I believe we jumped the shark.’
“One in every of our first little family and friends screenings went horribly. It was quite a lot of our mates tapping us on the shoulders, going, “Yeah… Good work.” It didn’t land very well. It was most likely midway by way of editorial that we began actually condensing. It was simply in the future, we put the appropriate music on, and we discovered the type of tone. We modified a number of issues and actually shaved down the opening and actually type of targeted on Keanu and simply type of landed on the tone and it type of labored.
“I want I might let you know we have been artistic geniuses with a imaginative and prescient from the beginning, but it surely was quite a lot of round at nighttime and attempting quite a lot of completely different editorial situations and actually trying to find the tone that we had in our heads that we wished. 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 probability, we discovered the tone we have been on the lookout for, and it labored.”
“That was an important studying course of for Chad and I,” Leitch defined of the post-production course of. “As a result of as many large motion pictures as we’d performed 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 important 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, ‘Possibly you don’t want that scene. Possibly 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 folks. I believe we jumped the shark.”
Leitch additionally credit the script written by Derek Kolstad for serving to information the minimalist nature.
“After 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 extremely 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 value a thousand phrases. That’s what’s nice in regards to the first act. There’s not quite a lot of dialogue actually, however you’re actually getting the whole lot it’s essential to find out about this man,” stated 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 quite a lot of expertise and been on quite a lot of units with quite a lot of administrators and mentored by quite a lot of nice folks. I believe we knew we had an strategy that we have been saying, ‘This value is difficult, but it surely additionally gives us a chance 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 proficient solid. Leitch praised working with Willem Dafoe because it helped them be taught that nice actors include quite a lot of concepts.
“They’re caring for a personality at a degree that you simply don’t actually have the bandwidth for as a director. [Dafoe] actually got here in with some attention-grabbing character concepts for that character, and watching him work was wow. It was like performing faculty,” admitted Leitch. “I bear in mind the scene the place he’s assembly Michael on the door, and he needs 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 attention-grabbing character issues to him was all the time so compelling.”
Stahelski showered reward on the late Lance Reddick, who was one of many first people who was solid in John Wick apart from Reeves.
“[Reddick] was in New York on the time. We requested him to return down and discuss to us. We had performed one fast name. He exhibits up. He’s like, ‘I acquired a brown swimsuit. I acquired a blue swimsuit. I believe that is the character, and by the way in which, 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 solid members was a little bit tough. If I’m pitching to you, ‘Properly, I acquired this motion film. It’s Keanu Reeves. He kills 80 folks ’explanation for a pet, and there’s this bizarre underworld, like a Greek fable.’ It’s not a simple promote with two first-time administrators. Some folks acquired it, some didn’t. The folks which can be within the film, they really acquired 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 straightforward.’
“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 solid that we had put collectively since. Plus the gentlest man you’ll ever wanna meet. Skilled, all the time on time, all the time acquired the scene. It’s humorous, him and Ian McShane collectively, every time they have been working, they’d all the time be on set. They by no means went. They stayed on set your complete day, talked to the crew, knew everyone’s identify. They wished 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 very good day on set, invite Lance and McShane, and also you had a extremely good day on set. There’s only a good vibe when the solid 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 check of time contain professional wrestler Kevin Nash and veteran actor Thomas Sadoski. As for Nash, he was a buddy of one of many producers and was an important option to play a Russian bodyguard who was once mates with Wick.
“Kevin had that actually, actually dry learn. Like he didn’t attempt to be powerful,” Stahelski defined. “He was simply this large imposing man as effectively. You might 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 traces. We acquired performed 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.”
One in every 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 acquired 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 completely different. Keanu goes to the door, extremely deadpan severe. 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 nearly reads such as you simply gotta get it to get [on with the story]. As an alternative, it grew to become the pivotal second the place we shift worlds. That’s the scene the place we’ve 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 grew to become our gentle change. So I all the time bear in mind Jimmy as he’s the guardian of the Wick world.
Paving the way in which for motion administrators
Leitch and Stahelski’s success has led to extra stuntmen getting possibilities in Hollywood, resembling The Killer’s Recreation director J.J. Perry, who was a stunt participant in John Wick. Perry, who has recognized 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,” stated 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 quite a lot of younger women and men on the market who come from our background and might do that job very effectively. The best way that visible results administrators have been big within the early millennium is the way in which that I believe motion administrators are gonna begin popping out now.”
Whereas the John Wick administrators may need kickstarted the present development, Leitch made certain to pay respect to the previous stuntmen who discovered success behind the digital camera.
“Properly, 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,” stated Leitch. Proper now, at present, there are folks previously like Jackie Chan who got here from stunts and have become an important storyteller, and Hal Needham and the others who have been stuntmen who grew to become 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 era 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 might, realizing what I do know now about lenses and lighting and how one can change it,” admitted Stahelski. “However on the finish of the day, I’m going again and I’ve watched it pretty 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 perfect we might do as a result of we didn’t surrender. 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 perfect we might do in comparison with what we’ve realized and know now.
“I like the primary film, however hopefully, you take a look at John Wick and John Wick 4 and go, “Properly, that man type of realized one thing. You bought a little bit higher.” I hope to be environment friendly or to convey a extra luscious sense of fashion or shade or some type of cohesive nature or thematics that by some means punch up. I’d hate so that you can watch the identical 4 motion pictures. I’d wish to see 1, 2, 3, 4, and hopefully the whole lot we do subsequent to be an enlargement in a optimistic manner ahead.”