by AllieHanley Geekscape Interview: John Wick 2 Director Chad Stahelski Talks Sequel, Chapter 3, and Morpheus and Neo On Set

“John Wick: Chapter 2” is headed to theaters this weekend and will be tallying up one of the largest body counts, shot for shot in cinematic history — and that’s an incredibly awesome thing! We love action movies at Geekscape and the sequel to John Wick takes it to a new level this time out with more backstory and bigger and “badder” action scenes.

In “John Wick,” the first film, which stars Keanu Reeves, we learn about a retired hitman known as the boogeyman, who was lauded as one of the deadliest assassins ever. In a twist of fate he’s pulled out of retirement after the death of his dog (a gift from his deceased wife) and the theft of his car. In “John Wick: Chapter 2” we see him trying to be retired, even going so far as to cement in his weapons once again into the garage floor. “Trying” is the key word. A figure from his past calls in a marker that requires John to do his bidding or pay a hefty price.

A reluctant hitman is not a happy hitman. What transpires is next- level debauchery all set to some of the most breathtaking action scenes set to grace the big screen. Think “The Raid II” and “Ronin” for an idea of how big this film is! JW2 brings to mind moments of the film “Ronin” where action and tension played center stage even to actor Robert De Niro. Like that film, “John Wick Chapter 2” allows the scenes to breath and expand from quiet to spectacular crescendo’s of action but still keeps an eye on story and character development. Car chases, hand to hand, and of course gun play take center stage in the John Wick films but director Chad Stahelski knows you can’t forget about story and character motivation. Even though in a film like JW2 where you don’t have a lot of time to get in deep with characters he still pays attention to character motivation.

Before I could ask him a question he fires off to me:

Chad Stahelski: So what was your favorite part of the movie?

Allie Hanley: I liked the shot sequence of when “Gianna” took her hair down and you could see the sharp end of her hair clip and you knew something was going to happen.

CS: She is such a bad ass.

AH: I like the way she went out on her own terms and the whole sequence that leads up to that in the soaking tub.

CS: That’s my favorite scene. I am a big fan of the artist Caravaggio and the catacombs in that scene are based almost sole off of his paintings.

The actress that plays that role, Claudia Gerini, she is like 42 years old and does her own one-woman show. I went to Rome looking to cast. She invited me <to her show> because she knew I was interested in talking to her. So I went to her show which goes on for two hours and she plays seven characters, she can do the splits, she’s a black-belt in tai kwon do, she does this incredible song-and-dance introspective kind of thing; And it was one of the most entertaining things I had seen in years. I was like I gotta cast her!

“John Wick” has a mythology and a dialogue. It’s a little left of center in that it’s not really plot motivated. It’s more TV based. If you watch “Taboo” or “Ray Donovan,” you follow the guy; You really don’t care what the plot is, you want to follow the drama. That’s how we modeled JW2. We cast actors who were willingly to embrace those types of characters which is a rare thing.

That’s how we got Riccardo Scamarcio, who plays Santino. He’s goes along with everything, and he’s awesome. Then you find actors like Common and the iconic Laurence Fishburne who is larger than life. Ian McShane couldn’t be more embracive of a character than he is with “Winston” -like from the very first film and the very first page he just got it and then he just runs with it.

I challenge anyone to go take a line of dialogue from this film and go say it to yourself and not find it sort of silly, -you know what I mean? And then when you have Laurence Fishburne deliver it and you are like “Wow” and that’s a bit challenging.

AH: What was the first day on set like for you when you had Keanu and Laurence in front of your camera?

CS: That scene was the rooftop. “The man, the myth, the legend! <line from the film>” I don’t know if you know this story but The Bowery King (Fishburnes character), was written with Fishburne in mind. I worked with him for like ten years on “The Matrix,” so we became friends and he is very influential in how I see actors and acting.

Cut to a couple years later and I am in New York prepping JW2 and Keanu just walks in cold into my office and says, “Hey I talked to Fish the other night, and he says what’s up? He loved the first movie and wants to know why isn’t he in the next movie?” I was like, “ya, ha ha.” Keanu was like “No, really. He wants to be in the film.” It was that simple and the next thing you know is that he is in the movie.

Cut to a month later when we are in the scene… up on a rooftop in Brooklyn and he’s literally giving the line “John Wick, the myth… the legend” and we take the shot up to a certain point and Laurence gets to the point of “You’re not very good at retiring” and Wick is like “I’m working on it” and the set goes quiet. Then Laurence looks over and asks, “You gonna yell cut?”

I was geeking out. I was thinking Oh my God, I am directing Neo and Morpheus! So that was my Hollywood moment when I was a little embarrassed.

In answer to your question it was pretty fucking cool. To be a huge fan and part of that process of going from stunt man, to stunt double to actually directing two iconic characters in my film.

AH: So tell me about John Wick 3?

CS: Oooom um. Good question.

AH: You got a script?

CS: I don’t know. Well, when we wrote John Wick 2 it was actually a big chunk of stuff and where we ended number two felt like a very nice stopping point. We didn’t want to stuff everything into it. I’d say we have a lot of ideas, we have an outline, and I know where I want it to go, and I know where Keanu would like it to go. So we are currently in development and that’s a fancy word for we are still thinking about it.

AH: You’ve worked with Keanu over a large span of time. You must really know him. What’s he like?

CS: I can’t tell you how great it is to work with Keanu. He’s quite the human and I don’t mean that as just an actor or an action guy who is just a great guy. He has interest in… pick a topic. He loves life, he’s interested in life, and he’s a great dude to talk too. If you ever get a chance to interview him you should, he’s just such a great guy.

AH: What ideas are you entertaining next?

CS: My biggest desire in film right now is to do a female action movie. We are just trying to find the right property for it and we are talking to several great writers about that right now.

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It’s just been announced that Chad is going to be directing the reboot for “Highlander” and according to Collider.com he plans to do it over three films.