‘John Wick‘ is one of the most iconic movie franchises which has given us a classic neo-noir anti-hero and catapulted the criminal underworld to new heights. Keanu Reeves bedazzled all with the role, and it is quite impossible to see any other actor playing the character.
But, surprise! Screenwriter Derek Kolstad originally scripted the character of John Wick as a 75-year-old man. Reeves reworked the original script to present the John Wick we know today.
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Keanu Reeves Took The Original ‘John Wick’ Script And Made It His Own
Basil Iwanyk, the franchise producer of ‘John Wick‘, revealed in his new book, ‘They Shouldn’t Have Killed His Dog: The Complete Uncensored Ass-Kicking Oral History of John Wick, Gun Fu, and the New Age of Action,‘ that the original John Wick character could have been played by the likes of Harrison Ford or Clint Eastwood.
Iwanyk was sent two actor recommendations by his two best friends Charlie Ferraro and Jimmy Darmody. While Charlie saw Harrison Ford as the John Wick character, Darmody, on the other hand, recommended Keanu Reeves.
Iwanyk explained, “And he [Jimmy Darmody] said, ‘Do you have any action movies for Keanu Reeves?’ I remember thinking to myself, ‘Keanu is one of the great action stars of the last 25 years — what happened to him? What’s he been doing?’ And he was directing his movie, ‘Man of Tai Chi,’ and doing ’47 Ronin.’ We give him the script, we tell him, ‘Clearly, you’re not 75.’”
Reeves’ John Wick Perspective
Keanu Reeves saw a lot of potential in the script and immediately loved the project and the proposed collaboration. In the book, Reeves said, “We all agreed on the potential of the project. It has this character of John Wick, but then you also have the real world, and at the same time this kind of underworld. This den of thieves that have this honor and a code. It has this emotional connection with John Wick, who’s grieving, who’s lost the love of his life and has this mythical dark past. And I loved the quest that he goes on to reclaim his life. And the world he moves through to do it.”
The screenwriter, Kolstad, said that the ‘Matrix‘ actor loved the script so much that he took the responsibility on himself to rebuild the character so he could play it well.
“I spent two months at Keanu’s house on the weekends working on the script,” Kolstad shares in the book. “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 300 screenplays stacked on his desk, because he reads everything that UTA, WME, William Morris sends out. He reads them all.” Continuing, “He read [the script] on a Friday, in 90 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.‘”
‘John Wick: Chapter 4‘ will release on March 23, 2023. Meanwhile, the book, ‘They Shouldn’t Have Killed His Dog‘ written by Edward Gross and Mark A. Altman was published on July 19, 2022.
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