Aside from your notebook, wall of ideas, and stunt team, is there some sort of “John Wick” universe bible that outlines the economy of the criminal underworld? Or is it more of a build-as-you-go universe?
A little of both. There’s the mind of Keanu Reeves and the notebook of Chad Stahelski [laughter].
“John Wick” as a series, or as a trilogy, (that was definitely not planned) is an amalgamation of shit that anyone involved loves. Anything you see on there, that’s me. That’s Keanu. Those colors are the colors I like. The music? That’s the music I like. Those cast members? Those are people Keanu and I always wanted or love to work with. The crew is who we wanted. The references to Tchaikovsky to Bertolucci to Leone to Kurosawa to Spielberg to Fincher to Cameron to the Wachowskis – you’re looking at a couple of geeks and fanboys [laughter] that got to make a movie geeking out over everybody they loved in the last 40 years.
If you ask us how do we expand? Think about every movie you love. Make a list. That’s 50 movies, at least. You’re going to put in your movie one thing from every movie that you’ve got in there just to get off on that and geek out. That’s us. So, as we expand it, as long as we love film and love geeking out, that’s why we stay in it, and that’s why we opted to go this route instead of some of the other offers. The studio’s cool. They get it. It’s like this wacky world where we could put ninjas on motorcycles, have Keanu rides horses, and anybody can pop up in it. We have our loves, ideas, our thoughts. It’s just trying to fit them in and not be intrusive to ourselves. Basically, we just don’t want to get in our own way of trying to overcomplicate or over-plot something. It’s truly that open to us.
Asia Kate Dillon is definitely one of the standouts among the new characters introduced. They have a cold curtness about their portrayal. How did the inception of their character come about? And were they your first choice to play the Adjudicator?
When we get together, and we were asked to do “John Wick 3,” Keanu and I didn’t really commit. We said we’d get back to everybody with an answer in a couple weeks. We just wanted to get together on our own and see if there was a story there…And we get back in a week, and we’re like, “Okay. Horses, dogs, New York, desert, camels. Great. Okay.” Keanu came back, “Well, yeah, you know, we want an older guy in a tent. And we want someone with a moral compass. And we want this character called the Adjudicator. I want somebody from the high table going around, part detective, part lady of justice kind of thing.” And I’m, “Oh, yeah, that’s great.” We’re both big fans of the book “Blood Meridian,” with the character of the judge.
We’re like, “Yeah. That’s a great idea. We’ll get this guy and this guy.” And he’s the lead bad guy for a while, just like described in “Blood Meridian,” a six-foot-four, six-foot-five, huge man, but with a very sharp intellect. And that was our original model for the Adjudicator. And then, as more of the story developed and more of the action design developed, we wanted ninjas and all this stuff, and combining the roles of lead bad guy and Adjudicator seemed to conflict against each other. He didn’t want someone so intellectual to be so physical and be a part of the fight scenes. So we thought, “Well, let’s have this character be more the driving force behind the high table.”
There’s so many great cast members out there. One of my line producer, Jeff Waxman, was a huge fan of “Billions.” And I had never seen the show. And he kept coming to me for a week, going, “There’s an actor on ‘Billions’ that you have to check out [laughter].” And I saw Asia’s character. And Asia was cool enough to come in and sit with Keanu and I. And literally, five minutes in, their confidence, and their deliveries on things, just talking, really got us excited. And I just remember after Asia left, Keanu and I looked at each other and went, “That’d be awesome.” We know that Asia would bring something that we didn’t see coming. And in the “Wick” world, that’s exactly what you want. You don’t want the norm. And Asia had a great take on it. A very collaborative, very creative performer. Couldn’t have been a better choice.
You already have a release date set for “John Wick: Chapter 4.” Has this prompted any brainstorming for story ideas for the next installment?
On one hand, the studio said they were going to announce it, which is great. It shows confidence that the studio likes working with Keanu and I and our little team. It shows confidence in the property. Then, obviously, there’s a fiduciary thing for them and for everybody involved. As far as what’s next for all of us, I can’t answer for Keanu or anybody else. I’m very happy.
We’re going to take this a little bit at a time. Keanu’s obviously got his head wrapped up into “Bill and Ted’s” right now. But certainly, I’m sure it’s in the back of his mind. It’s just can we come up with something that’s interesting to everybody else and to make sure it’s not just a cash grab or we’re just doing it because we’ve got nothing else to do. I just want the process to stay pure. We love the property. We’re very proud that it’s come so far. And basically, just don’t want to fuck it up [laughter]. If there’s really something cool where we can take it, I’m sure we’d both say yes. If there feels like there’s not a block and there’s nothing there, the worst thing you could do is force yourself to sit in a room and make yourself come up with number four.
You’re a writer and, and director of the first episode of “The Continental” TV series. Keanu’s also a producer. Could you provide any plot details, which characters may or may not return, and if there are any new locations that we’ll see in this universe?
Currently, we just started getting together again and working on that. It’s going to deal with the “John Wick” world. It may be different timelines. It may be different characters than what’s in the film, with overlaps. The tone, the flavor, and the accent will all be tied into the “Wick” world that we’ve established in the features. We’re still at an early point in development. It’s tricky. You want to do something fresh and new, but you want to tie it to the same world. And the good news is we’re applying the same creative process and some of the same creative people to the TV show. So, I have all the confidence in the world that we’re going to come up with something relatively soon that’s going to be, hopefully, the best action on TV.
Do you see an end in sight for this story?
We’ve all seen things that run their course, or the creative input hasn’t gone into it, or they keep trying to hum on the same thing of remake the same film over and over again. Do I still think there’s margin in the Keanu Reeves version of “John Wick?” Yeah. There’s plenty of space to expand and explore some of the character traits. I also think there’s plenty of room to expand some of the other characters in the films, which is really interesting to me. When we wake up again that one day and feel like we’re starting to repeat or the audience is going, “This is getting a little repetitive,” then hopefully everyone involved has a common sense to lay down and give John Wick a rest for a little bit [laughter]. It’s our pet project. It’s a big part of who we are, so we want to treat it a little differently than just a product.
Do you have any films in the development slate that have you jazzed up?
There’s something that I’m currently developing with Studio 8, which is called “Sandman Slim.” It sounds wacky, but it’s a book series from Richard Kadrey. Jeff Robinov is producing. It’s a really cool series of books that we’re trying to get going. It’s like “Fight Club” meets “Harry Potter” [laughter]. Again, I like a little edgy. I like a little weird.
“John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum” is in theaters now.