John Wick: The character was 75, but Keanu Reeves made him his

Keanu Reeves he converted to John Wick in one of the most iconic action heroes of recent years. With more than eight months to go before the premiere of the fourth film in the saga – which already has its first official photo -, an unprecedented fact emerged for the fandom: the role was originally written for a much older actor.

Franchise producer Basil Iwanyk said that in the original script, the main character was a 75-year-old man, along the lines of Harrison Ford or Clint Eastwood. This is confirmed in the book They Shouldn’t Have Killed His Dog: John Wick’s Complete Uncensored Oral Story, Gun Fu, and the New Age of Action.

“One of my best friends, Charlie Ferraro (a representative of the United Talent Agency), sent me this script by Derek Kolstad called contempt”, Iwanyk began telling in this book that tells the details of the behind-the-scenes of the action franchise.

“The protagonist was a 75-year-old man, 25 years after he retired. It was fun to watch Clint Eastwood kick ass. I thought, ‘Okay, there are probably one or two names that could do this: Clint Eastwood, Harrison Ford,’ “he recalled.

How “John Wick” was conceived.

Iwanyk told the details of how it all started. “My other best friend in the world, Jimmy Darmody, an AAC agent who represented Keanu at the time, asks me, ‘Do you have any action movies for Keanu Reeves?'”

“I remember thinking to myself, ‘Keanu is one of the big action stars of the last 25 years, what happened to him? What is he doing? ‘ And he was directing his movie of him, Tai man Who, and do 47 Ronin. We gave him the script and said, ‘Clearly, you’re not 75,’ “she confessed.

There are also statements from Reeves in the book. Keanu claims he knows John Wick it would immediately be “a great collaboration”. “We all agree that the project had potential. You have this John Wick character, but you also have the real world and, at the same time, this kind of underworld, “said the star of Matrix.

He added: “The film has this den of thieves with their honor and their codes. He has this emotional connection with John Wick, who is suffering because he has lost the love of his life and has this dark and mythical past. And I loved the quest he goes on to get his life back. And the world he moves through to do so, ”Reeves justified.

The pearls of Kolstad, the screenwriter

Another that has revealed little pearls of how it was conceived John Wick It was the same screenwriter Derek Kolstad who had thought of a 70-year-old protagonist. He said Reeves “put his claws into the script and made it out of him.” And he added that Keanu loved the script so much that he decided to change the character to play it.

“I spent two months at Keanu’s house working on the script over the weekends,” Kolstad explains in the book. “When I first met him and walked into his house, I saw in his office that he had 300 scripts stacked on his desk. Because he reads everything that UTA, WME, William Morris (talent agencies) send him. He reads them all, ”assures the screenwriter.

Kolstad hinted that the actor from Full speed he’s not pretentious at all, describing himself as having “a nice house, not flashy for a guy worth, I don’t know, billions of dollars.”

And he went on to give details of his first encounters with Reeves. “He read (the script) on a Friday in 90 minutes, and he was like, ‘I want to do this.’ At the time, before I met him and got along, I thought, ‘Yeah, I want to do this too.’ The first thing Keanu said to me was: ‘Okay, Derek, but I’m going to play him as a 35-year-old boy. And I:’ Dale ‘. “

They shouldn’t have killed his dog, written by Edward Gross and Mark A. Altman, was released on Tuesday this week. Reeves will once again take on the role of John Wick John Wick: Chapter 4which will be released on March 23, 2023.

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