When you think of “John Wick,” it’s impossible to imagine anyone else other than Keanu Reeves in the title role. In the three films already released, Reeves has crafted an original character that has broken through and become part of the cultural zeitgeist, which is becoming increasingly difficult to do. However, the original idea for “John Wick” was very different, and Reeves would have been disqualified from playing the character if it proceeded as planned.
As revealed in the new book, “They Shouldn’t Have Killed His Dog: The Complete Uncensored Oral History of John Wick, Gun Fu, and the New Age of Action,” by Edward Gross and Mark A. Altman (via EW), apparently, the original idea for the “John Wick” franchise was more in line with “Taken,” as it was set to feature a much older leading man.
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“One of my best friends is Charlie Ferraro at UTA, who sent me this script from Derek Kolstad called ‘Scorn,’” said producer Basil Iwanyk. “The lead was a seventy-five-year-old man, twenty-five years after being retired. It was the fun of watching Clint Eastwood kick ass. I thought, ‘Okay, there’s probably one or two names you could do this with: Clint Eastwood, Harrison Ford. Other than that, I’m not sure how I put this movie together.’ But the tone of the script for ‘John Wick’ was subversive and really fun. It has a very clear emotional throughline and a great premise for an action movie.”
So, as you now know, “John Wick” went through some major changes from the original screenplay to the finished product. And that all really started when writer Derek Kolstad had a meeting with Keanu Reeves. Suddenly, it didn’t really matter if the main character was supposed to be 75.
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“We had talked internally about actors, but it was Keanu Reeves — a voracious script reader; anything he gets his hands on, he reads — who got his talons into it and made it his own,” said Kolstad. “I spent two months at Keanu’s house on the weekends working on the script. When I first went and met with him and walked into his house, and as he rounded the corner to say hello to me — it’s a nice house, it’s not ostentatious for a guy who’s worth, I dunno, billions — and I look in his office, I see he has three hundred screenplays stacked on his desk, because he reads everything that UTA, WME, William Morris sends out. He reads them all. And so think that he read something on a Friday, in ninety minutes, and was like, ‘I want to do it.’ In that moment, before I met and really clicked with him, I was like, ‘Yeah, I really want to do it, too.’ The first thing that Keanu said to me was, ‘Okay, Derek, I’m going to play him 35.’ And I’m like, ‘Fine.'”
The rest, as they say, is history. “John Wick” went into production quickly and was released on an unsuspecting public who immediately embraced Keanu Reeves’ assassin character. The popularity of the new franchise led to two quick sequels, with a fourth one on the way. There’s also a new TV show, “The Continental,” as well as at least one spinoff film, reportedly starring Ana de Armas. Needless to say, if Clint Eastwood starred in the film, it’s likely it wouldn’t have had nearly the same impact. But, who knows?