Chad Stahelski and David Leitch fought with financiers to keep Keanu Reeves’ beard within the first John Wick film.
The primary John Wick film will quickly return to theaters to rejoice its tenth anniversary. Because the franchise has spawned sequels, spinoffs, TV collection, video video games, and extra, it’s simple to neglect that the primary movie was such a shock. Administrators Chad Stahelski and David Leitch confronted an uphill battle to make John Wick, together with combating with financiers to keep Keanu Reeves’ beard.
It’s onerous to think about John Wick with out his beard (which appears nice on him), however financiers had been involved that it might make the movie harder to promote in worldwide markets. “We were trying to do a modern-day Greek mythology fantasy movie. That’s not mainstream. So we wanted to do something cool with Keanu,” Stahelski informed Enterprise Insider. “However the cash individuals, they needed to see Keanu f***ing Reeves. ‘Point Break’ Keanu, ‘Speed’ Keanu. And I don’t know if this exists anymore, however on the time we had been informed by the powers that be you don’t cowl up your main man’s face with a beard.“
Leitch added, “I don’t want to get into it, but since then I have had contentious conversations about stars having facial hair. “He needs to be clean-shaven for international!” That’s the traditional studio line.“
Stahelski continued, “We needed individuals to suppose, ‘Oh, this is not the Keanu we know.’ We caught a number of shit. However we felt you’ll be able to’t hearth us, so first day of capturing, we had Keanu within the beard, and later that week, once they watched the dailies, with cinematographer Jonathan Sela’s now well-known half-light photographs, individuals f***ing cherished it.“
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Our first John Wick spinoff film might be Ballerina, which stars Ana de Armas as a younger girl with killer abilities who units out to get revenge when hitmen kill her household. Because the movie takes place within the John Wick universe, it’s going to characteristic appearances from a number of franchise characters, together with Ian McShane as Winston, the proprietor of the Continental Resort, the late Lance Reddick as Charon, the Continental’s concierge, and Anjelica Huston because the Director, the pinnacle of the Ruska Roma. Keanu Reeves can even make an look as John Wick. The movie can even embody Catalina Sandino Moreno, Gabriel Bryne, and Norman Reedus in undisclosed roles. The movie is about to hit theaters on June 6, 2025.