‘John Wick 3’ Director, Keanu Reeves Fought To Keep Finger Scene

Lionsgate

WARNING: This article accommodates spoilers for John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum.

Whether or not you assume modern-day motion motion pictures are simply too lengthy, it’s tough to disregard how good John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum is. (Not to say how good star Keanu Reeves is in it.) As a lot enjoyable as it’s to see the “retired” murderer blast, stab, kick and punch his approach by means of a seemingly infinite array of unhealthy guys and women, nevertheless, shock franchise’s newest entry does one thing relatively stunning to its hero within the second act. What’s extra, Reeves and director Chad Stahelski needed to combat the studio for it.

About halfway by means of the movie, Wick seeks the aide of The Elder (Saïd Taghmaoui), a rating member of the High Table. In order to show how dedicated he will probably be to him, the hero slices off the ring finger on his left hand and provides his wedding ceremony ring to him. As Stahelski defined to The Hollywood Reporter, the studio balked at this — largely due to its potential monetary prices on the manufacturing:

“No one creatively saw a problem with it, but it comes down to a simple matter of financials. Without giving away the spoiler, you saw it; you know what he does. That’s on his lead hand. You have a left-handed actor who’s just deformed his left hand and that left hand is in every shot of the third act of the movie. VFX wise, there’s a cost associated with that. There’s logistical problems and practical filming that are associated with that. The studio does their job of questioning my visions and my methods to see if I really like it.”

Despite the studio’s points with the scene, Stahelski and Reeves “felt very strongly about [it] being an emotional trigger and incredibly symbolic of what he’s giving up at that moment in that scene.” They had been additionally “willing to [make] sacrifices in other areas to preserve the funds to make that come to fruition.” As a end result, the filmmaker and the actor had been capable of maintain the stunning scene within the film, although not with out chopping again on different points of the manufacturing. As for what these cuts had been, Stahelski didn’t say.

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)