John Wick, the 2014 hit movie starring Keanu Reeves as a retired assassin, quickly became one of the fan favorites, with many considering it the actor’s best performance.
However, Reeves was not always the star of the movie, especially due to the original age of the protagonist who was much older than the actor.
A new book details the making of John Wick and discusses Reeves’ decision to take on the role after reading the script in just 90 minutes.
John Wick was supposed to be older
In their book What They Had to Kill His Dog: The Complete Uncensored Oral History of John Wick, John Foe, and the New Age of Action, Edward Gross and Mark A. Altman explain how John Wick was originally supposed to be much older than him. It’s all over. About 40 years older to be exact.
Franchise producer Basil Ioannik says in the book that the lead in the original John Wick script, written by Derek Kolstad, was 75 years old. However, they still provided a script for Reeves, who Iwank described as “one of the greatest action stars of the last 25 years”, even though he was not of the same age as the character.
After reading the script, Reeves decided he would play the 35-year-old character, which Kolstad agreed to. And so, the John Wick we know and love was born.
Reeves “got his claws”
Reeves quickly inserted his claws into the text, being a “vulgar text reader”, and made it his own. Kolstad explained that he spent two months of weekends with Reeves working on the script.
Kolstad recounted entering Reeves’ office for the first time and seeing piles of scenarios on the actor’s desk.
“I see that he has three hundred scripts stacked on his desk, because he is reading everything Sent by UTA, WME, and William Morris. He reads them all. So he thought he read something on Friday, at ninety minutes, and was saying “I want to do it,” as he says in the book.
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Why did Reeves choose to do John Wick?
The script was brought to Reeves with the idea that he would be part of “such a wonderful collaboration”.
“We all agreed on the potential of the project,” Reeves said. “It’s this John Wick character, but you also have the real world, and at the same time this kind of underworld. This is the lair of thieves who have that honor and the law.”
The actor “loved” the quest that Wake continues to get his life back and “the world he travels through to do so.”
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