The wait for ‘John Wick: Chapter 4‘ is almost over as the highly anticipated movie is now less than two months away.
The director of the film, Chad Stahelski talks about his experience during the shoot and more. Chad talked about takes and explaining scenes to the actors on sets. He said, “When you come down to the day the scene is going to be shot and you arrive on the location with the actors […] the reality of the final moment, just before shooting, is so powerful that all previous analysis must yield before the impressions you receive under these circumstances.”
Stahelski further continued, “I don’t tell my cast too much. I give them the setting. We have a little chat. But there’s nothing like it’s 5 a.m., we’re just setting up the lights. It’s still dark out. They get out of the car. We’re going to do our read-through, and then they get out of the SUV, and it’s the f***ing Eiffel Tower right there at this great table […] When you explain that in a room, in an office, it’s one thing, but when you see it with the Eiffel Tower and the symmetry, they all started to get the symmetry and the artistic nature of what we’re trying to do when they get there. And there’s nothing like seeing their faces when they go, ‘Oh, I get what you’re saying now.'”
Chad also talked about changing the formula for the fourth instalment. He said, “It gets a little scary after the third one. Because now we have a formula that works. But you have to throw caution to the wind and say, ‘F*** it, we’re not doing that again.’ So now, on number four, we have multiple storylines. The movie feels different. It feels more epic.”
He also added that he’s not just focusing on the action part of the film but taking care of all aspects, “The good, big budget action directors know that action is just another part of the process like acting and performances […] all the pieces are equally important.”
Does ‘John Wick: Chapter 4‘ have anything to do with Greek mythology?
In an interview in 2022, Chad Stahelski revealed how he envisioned Wick as the legendary Greek myth Odysseus right from the start. He said, “I love mythology […] I love a good myth. I don’t really believe — at least for the ‘John Wick’ movies — in a three-act structure. I believe in storytelling and leaving it. You know, we’ve always seen John Wick as Odysseus. So we take the time we need to tell the story. As long as we don’t fall asleep watching it, we keep it going. But I guess there is a bathroom limit.”
‘John Wick: Chapter 4‘ arrives in theaters on March 24, 2023.