‘John Wick: Chapter 4’ director Chad Stahelski open to a fifth movie

PTI, Apr 3, 2023, 11:35 AM IST

“John Wick 4” director Chad Stahelski says he is open to working on a fifth film in the popular assassin series, starring Keanu Reeves.

The fourth film in the franchise has already earned USD 245 million worldwide at the box office in its second weekend run, according to the entertainment website The Hollywood Reporter.

“It’s very flattering for them to come back and, you know, say ‘We want more’ and it’s not just a cash grab. It’s legitimately the audience wants more,” Stahelski said in a new episode of THR’s Behind the Screen podcast series.

“I think we all need that little bit of time to go, ‘Whew. Let’s see what’s next.’ … If Keanu and I, a few months from now sit down at a whiskey bar in Japan again and go, ‘Yep, we’ll never do another one of those,’ and then all of a sudden go, ‘Yeah, but I got an idea,’ we’re open to it,” he added.

“John Wick 4” was shot around Japan, France, Jordan, Germany and New York.

The new movie has been praised for action scenes set around Paris’ Arc de Triomphe and another on the 270 steps that lead to the hilltop Sacré Cœur Basilica in the French capital.

The director, who was joined by cinematographer Dan Laustsen and editor Nathan Orloff on the podcast, detailed how they shot the scenes in Paris.

“We were (scouting) at the top of Sacré Cœur, the sun had just set. We looked down the stairs from the top, and went, ‘Oh, somebody’s going down this,'” said the director, adding “literally we’re like, not only is he going down this, we’re gonna have John Wick fight his way up. We’re gonna throw him back down and then we’re gonna have him and Donnie [Yen’s] character Caine do the Butch and Sundance thing and get to the top… We’ll do the music and we’ll make it like a Western. We’ll have him fight all the way to the top and bond just so we can see who kills each other at the top.” ”John Wick” series centres around the eponymous assassin played by Reeves. The action franchise started with 2014’s ”John Wick”, which followed a retired assassin who returns to the world he had left behind to avenge the killing of a pup which was the final gift from his deceased wife.