‘John Wick’ Creator Says ‘The Continental’ Ignored Feedback From Him And Keanu Reeves: “A Group Of Individuals Thought They Had The Magic Sauce”
Far from a fan of the television spin-off, John Wick creator Chad Stahelski says that one of the main reasons why The Continental received a relatively middling reception was the fact that its production crew believed they were capable of handling the material without any input from either himself or franchise star Keanu Reeves.
Stahelski, who also directed the four mainline John Wick films, shared his thoughts on the Mel Gibson-led TV series during a recent interview given to The Hollywood Reporter’s James Hibberd ahead of the wide release of franchise’s next entry, Ballerina.
Asked by his host if his hands-off experience with The Continental had taught him “any creative lessons in terms of how to expand this universe,” the director noted that, perhaps more than anything, he had learned just how ‘wrong’ things can go if a given production team refused to actively engage with the spirit of their work.
“Keanu [Reeves] and I were — I wouldn’t say sidelined, but our opinion was heard and not really noted,” said Stahelski. “[The studio] tried to convince me they knew what they were doing. A group of individuals thought they had the magic sauce. But if you take out Basil Iwanyk’s producing intuitiveness, if you take out Keanu’s way of delivering quirky dialogue and if you take out all the visuals I have in my head from [director] Wong Kar-wai, anime, [Sergio] Leone, Bernardo Bertucci or Andrei Tchaikovsky … then it’s not the same thing.”
“They thought this was as easy as using anamorphic lenses, do a kooky hotel, put in weird dialogue, and insert crime drama,” he continued. “If you saw our process, you’d be like, ‘You’re telling me this billion dollar franchise does it this way?’ I’m scouting my next film in London and we saw a cool location yesterday which totally changed the second act. We rewrote the whole thing. I find great cast members and rewrite their parts constantly.”
“That’s what makes [the movies] so good and organic — we’re constantly upgrading,” he concluded. “But the studio likes to know what they’re getting for their buck and want to lock a script for budget reasons. While we’re saying, ‘Just write the check, we’ll see you at the finish line.'”
To this end, Hibberd further pressed Stahelski if he ever worried that “the world of John Wick only works with John Wick”, to which he asserted, “Keanu and I actually just talked about this.”
“Look, it’s always tricky,” he then explained of such projects as The Continental and Ballerina. “I think the world can be supported as long as you don’t go crazy and carpet bomb. What we’re doing now are stories we really want to tell that feel organic. You’ve seen Alice in Wonderland. Now what about the Rabbit? What about the Cheshire Cat? Also, sometimes in your own franchise, you get so far up your own ass with the mythology that by the 10th movie you don’t know what’s going on.”
“I don’t ever want to get that way with Wick,” the franchise creator ultimately declare. “I want each one to be able to stand alone.”
Ballerina is now in theaters.
