Jakarta, CNN Indonesia —
Writer John Wick: Chapter 4 said Keanu Reeves and director Chad Stahelski threw out much of John Wick’s dialogue in the film’s script, so the hitman’s actions remained wordless.
Variety reported on Monday (27/3), The Wall Street Journal noted that Keanu Reeves only spoke 380 words for the film John Wick 4, which lasted nearly three hours or 169 minutes to be exact.
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This is in line with John Wick’s style in the previous sagas. When compared to the first saga, Reeves spoke 484 words for a duration of 101 minutes.
Screenwriter Michael Finch said Keanu Reeves and director Chad Stahelski “removed roughly half of the dialogue written for his character in the original script,”
Finch mentioned that one of the scenes in question was when Wick was negotiating with the Marquis de Gramont (Bill Skarsgård).
In that scene, Wick originally had 50 percent of the dialogue portion. But all of them were discarded by Keanu Reeves leaving only one or two words, such as “gun” and “no quarter”.
(Gambas:Video CNN)
“It’s striking when you work with him how dedicated he is to not speaking up,” Finch told The Wall Street Journal.
In fact, John Wick’s longest dialogue in the film is just one sentence, namely when John Wick tells Shimazu Koji (Hiroyuki Sanada).
“You and I left a good life behind a long time ago, my friend,” kata John Wick dalam adegan tersebut.
The Wall Street Journal says that about 10 percent of Keanu Reeves’ 380 words of dialogue in John Wick 4 are shown in the trailer.
“This makes the hero seem more chatty. Wick says more in the 2.5-minute clip than he does in the first 25 minutes of the film,” wrote The Wall Street Journal.
Even though there is minimal dialogue, John Wick makes up for it with grueling action scenes. Reeves called John Wick: Chapter 4 the most difficult action film he has ever made.
Reeves spent nearly three months exclusively training for the stunts in the film. According to him, John Wick’s car stunt around the Arc de Triomphe was the most challenging scene.
(Gambas:Youtube)
Reeves had to learn how to do a 180-degree reverse and hover while reloading the gun and shooting it out the door.
John Wick: Chapter 4 topped the box office in its opening weekend. John Wick 4 collected over US$73.5 million (US$1=Rp15,171) from the Hollywood box office.
This achievement is a good start for the franchise, which still stars Keanu Reeves. John Wick 4 is also proof of the scarcity of sequels that will perform better than their predecessors in terms of ticket sales.
(yla/end)