Robin Hood: Origins Producer On Using John Wick’s Stunt Choreography As A Model For Success

Every once in a while, a cinematic sleeper hit comes along and blows past everyone’s expectations to such an extent that it has a rippling effect on the entire genre. In 2014, John Wick was that film.

Three years ago, Chad Stahelski and David Leitch’s blistering revenge thriller was lauded as a rich cocktail of incredible stunt work and jaw-dropping action, and it’s small wonder why Lionsgate quickly commissioned a sequel in the form of John Wick: Chapter 2. But at least in the action department, the studio is eager to use Wick’s choreography as a template for success. Chatting to Collider, Basil Iwanyk, producer on the upcoming Robin Hood: Origins, teased the ways in which Otto Bathurst’s reboot differs from the Hood stories of old.

“Exempting the killer cast, I feel that it captures the adventure and the fun and the spirit of Robin Hood, but because it’s the origin story—it’s a kid going off to war thinking he’s going on a great Crusade, and realizing it’s all bullshit and coming back with some PTSD and realizing he’s been lied to, and coming back to kind of a fractured society that doesn’t really accept him and realizing, ‘Okay the super rich are getting richer, and the poor are getting poorer.’ You could describe that now. What Joby Harold, our writer, was able to do is make it feel very allegorical and very contemporary, and feel youthful but not youthful in a YA way, youthful in a kind of, the anger, the energy, what people when they were 25 feel, without it being pandering like ‘Look, we’re the young version of the movie!’”

Further in the interview, Iwanyk then highlighted John Wick‘s stunt work as inspiration, even going so far as to say that next year’s Robin Hood: Origins will do to bow and arrows what Wick did for guns.

“The images of Robin Hood, the imagery we have, the production design, the stunt work that we’re doing—a lot of it was inspired by the John Wick stunt work. The stuff we’re doing with the bow and arrow, it’s the same thing that Keanu does with the gun. The costumes, it just feels different than any other Robin Hood we had.”

Headed up by Kingsman breakout Taron Egerton, Origins features a cast comprised of Ben Mendelsohn as the Sheriff of Nottingham, Eve Hewson as Maid Marian, Jamie Dornan as Will Scarlett and Jamie Foxx as Little John.

Lionsgate has earmarked Robin Hood: Origins for release on March 23rd, 2018. John Wick: Chapter 2, meanwhile, shoots for theaters on February 10th of this year.