From the very second the premise of Gunpowder Milkshake was revealed, the John Wick comparisons were there for all to see. After all, the plot focuses on an elite assassin that’s part of a secret underground network that looks to bring some unique world-building aspects to a plot that’s been seen and done a thousand times before.
It’s not surprising that Netflix stepped in to acquire the R-rated actioner either, when the streaming service is looking to corner the market on high concept, no-frills genre fare that’s heavily indebted to the massively popular Keanu Reeves franchise. Chris Hemsworth’s Extraction was cut from the same cloth in terms of the impressively staged action sequences, Mary Elizabeth Winstead’s upcoming Kate adds a dash of Jason Statham’s Crank into the mix, and an Atomic Blonde sequel with Charlize Theron remains in development behind the scenes.
In a new interview, star Karen Gillan addressed those comparisons head on, but the Marvel Cinematic Universe veteran also offered up Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill as another inspiration, which only makes Gunpowder Milkshake sound all the more exciting.
“It sort of exists in a fairly similar world to John Wick. They’re going to pick up their weapons from a place and using code words. I would say the film is pretty different tonally. It’s definitely slightly weirder. It’s more bonkers. It’s really stylized. So I would say that there’s like a level of Tarantino feel to it. Maybe like Kill Bill more so than John Wick.”
So what we’ve got is a stylish and very violent action movie that sees Karen Gillan as a hired killer tasked with protecting an 8 year-old girl from Paul Giamatti’s mob boss, forcing her to reconnect with her mother and team up with an esteemed cabal of hitters known as the Librarians, which throws Lena Headey, Michelle Yeoh, Carla Gugino and Angela Bassett headlong into a succession of blood, bullets and pyrotechnics. That sounds all kinds of awesome, and the good news is that Gunpowder Milkshake is now less than two weeks away from coming to Netflix on July 14th.