The Boogeyman is back for even longer than before.
“John, is a man of focus. Commitment. Sheer will. Something you know very little about. I once saw him kill three men in a bar… with a pencil. With a fuckin’ pencil.”
And with that wonderful description, a modern icon was born. It also helps that Keanu Reeves has the badass qualities to back up the slick suits because when John Wick puts people down, they stay down..for good!
Truth be told, the first two John Wick chapters are absolutely brilliant films because aside from the gun-fu, wonderful choreography, and immersive universe, the plot boils down to one simple truth, never f**k with a man’s dog, especially a man that has just lost his wife.
Of course, as Chapter Two drew to a conclusion, Jonathan (said in our best Winston) voice has seen his membership to The Continental revoked – he’s been given a one-hour grace period before he’s excommunicado – and on the run from every single assassin in the world that wants to claim the $14 million dollar bounty that’s on his head. S
till though, if you had to choose one man to take on the world, it would be Mr. Wick.
Why?
Well, very few people have killed three men in a bar… with a pencil. With a fuckin’ pencil! It’s John Wick against the world, but guess what? Our money is still on the man they call ‘Baba Yaga.’
We’ve kept our eye on every single snippet of news from John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum and in a recent interview with Collider, the director of John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, Chad Stahelski, has said that the script for the new film is the longest one in the John Wick franchise.
“I think we’ve probably got 20% more movie than Part Two, so the script was a little bit thicker. There’s more characters in this one and we’ve upped the action by at least three sequences which means the body count is substantially higher,” said Stahelski.
While no official runtime has been confirmed – the film is still being edited –Â Stahelski confirmed that he has shot 2 hours and 46 minutes of footage which he states “is a little bit too long.”
At 2 hours and 2 minutes, John Wick: Chapter 2 is the longest film yet featuring the uber-cool assassin, but this look set to be topped.
This being said, the director is very conscious that he doesn’t what the film to be just fight follows fight…follows fight.
“It’s not just about hurrying up the duration of the film to get a 90 minute film. It’s about how to give the audience a break and find that natural pricing of ‘Ok, let’s have some fun, let’s have a laugh, let’s do something dramatic.’ There needs to be ebb and flow. Parabellum really has two storylines – what’s going on with Ian McShane in New York and John Wick’s journey,” he said.
However, don’t think that Keanu Reeves is easing up on the action. In fact, Mr. Wick is increasing his workload to make the next film even bigger than the other two.
“We’ve had three films with Keanu and he has been training pretty much the whole time. His martial-art choreography – punches, kicks, flips, falls, and fights – are all better. His weapon based stuff – guns and knives – are better. We lean in to what Keanu is really good at in this film. Like, he’s a professional motorcycle rider so we incorporated that. Every action set-piece is different. It’s a more eclectic assortment of action sequences rather than just a fight, a fight, a fight,” said Stahelski.
Prepare for war because John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum is released on 17 May.
Clip via Lionsgate Movies
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