John Wick looks a little worse for wear in the latest pair of stills to emerge for John Wick: Chapter 2, the blistering action sequel in the works from director Chad Stahelski.
Muscling his way back into the seedy underbelly of assassin guilds and dangerous killers-for-hire as Wick is Keanu Reeves, who, along with director Stahelski, offered up some interesting tidbits regarding the 2017 sequel to go along with those über-stylish pics.
Per Empire magazine, the first image places fresh-faced baddies Riccardo Scamarcio and Ruby Rose front and center in a shimmering, hall of mirrors-like setting. Armed and dangerous, we can readily assume that Scamarcio and Rose have their sights trained on Wick, and the surrounding environment ought to make for a nail-biting exchange of bullets and fisticuffs.
“The mirror room was Chad’s idea,” Reeves tells Empire. “It’s his homage to Bruce Lee at the end of Enter The Dragon. The whole installation is a maze of mirrors where guys can pop out and disappear. It’s very cool and a lot of fun to fight in.”
It’s a scene that will no doubt stand as one of the highlights of John Wick: Chapter 2, and further in the piece, Stahelski once again cited Asian filmmaking and in particular the cinema of Hong Kong as inspiration.
“You go watch any of the great Hong Kong guys, [you’re watching] wider shots; you’re watching an extremely talented individual. If you’re using fast editing to hide things, I call bullshit. That’s cheating. Luckily, we have a cast member that can do it. Keanu’s been doing martial arts for 25 years. He’s been trained by us, he’s been trained by Yuen Wo Ping. He’s been trained by Chen Yen.”
Crafting a sequel to the 2014 sleeper hit certainly throws up some challenges for Chad Stahelski and Keanu Reeves to tackle, but the latter capped off the Empire interview by stating that Chapter 2 is “like going back to your favourite restaurant but this time, instead of getting to the fillet, you’re getting the porterhouse.”
Hold onto your butts: John Wick: Chapter 2 busts into theaters on February 10, 2017, offering a welcome alternative to Fifty Shades Darker, as James Foley’s erotic follow-up is slated to open on the same weekend.
Published: Oct 24, 2016 09:39 am