Review John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum (2019)

Doctor Omega

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“John Wick” Scribe Returns For Third Helping


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Derek Kolstad, who penned the scripts for the first two “John Wick” films, will return to pen the screenplay for the upcoming third movie.

“John Wick: Chapter 3” is being fast-tracked to start production this fall with Reeves expected to reprise his role of beleaguered hitman John Wick.

Chad Stahelski, who co-directed the first and fully directed the second, is working with Kolstad and developing the project with an eye to direct it. Basil Iwanyk will produce.

The two films released so far have made over $250 million worldwide.


A Third “John Wick” Is Moving Along Fast


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In the wake of the success of “John Wick: Chapter 2,” a third film in the series appears to be moving along quicker than expected.

The second film’s director Chad Stahelski says that the script for the next entry is already being penned and there’s even a production start date in mind – and it’s not far off. Stahelski tells Collider:

“We’re currently in the middle of writing it right now. It’s more of a how fast can we get our sh– together. But I would assume that if not by the end of this year, the beginning of next year.”

While Stahelski says he’s “super involved” in the film, he wouldn’t confirm if here’s directing:

“Currently I’m acting as prep director. Hopefully, everything will work out time wise. Of course — I would love to… If you really watch the first and second one, there’s only one place it can go — so I’ll let you sort that out.”

He’s also given a separate and more detailed answer to Cinema Blend about what work on the film has been done so far and the main advantage he sees creatively with tackling the third film:

“Two is always the tricky one. Because you don’t know who has seen number one, who hasn’t seen number one. Now I think because we’ve done well with one and two, people are vested into the John Wick world, so 3 I don’t have to spend 20 minutes of the first part of number three reminding you, ‘This is a guy with a dog.’ We can just jump right in and have fun and truly be free to create some other expansion of the world without having to ride that line. So looking forward, we’re developing 3 right now — we have a writing team already on it. Derek Kolstad, of course. And we’ve been putting ideas together for the last four months.”

Should things progress as planned, this looks likely to get a very early 2019 release. Late last year it was revealed Stahelski had begun work on “Triple Threat,” an action thriller that would team Tony Jaa, Tiger Chen and Iko Uwais.

“John Wick: Chapter Two” is now available on Digital HD ahead of a disc release and VOD rental premiere on June 13th.



 
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Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
“John Wick: Chapter 3” Set For May 2019


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Lionsgate and Summit Entertainment have announced a May 17th 2019 release date for the third installment in the cult action series “John Wick”.

Keanu Reeves is expected to return for this third and potentially final outing for the hitman character whom everyone seems to know and who is now on the run following the ending of the second film.

The second film opened in February this year and ultimately grossed $171.5 million worldwide. No other films are set for the third film’s release date as yet which will come two weeks after the fourth “Avengers” and before the “Aladdin” and “Minecraft” films.
 

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
“John Wick” TV Series Moving Forward


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Starz CEO Chris Albrecht used his network’s presentation at the Television Critics Association Winter 2018 Press Tour to confirm they and Lionsgate are developing the previously rumored television series adaptation of the “John Wick” franchise.

“The Continental” will be set in the John Wick universe, more specifically in a hyper-real version of Los Angeles, and focus on the inner workings of the exclusive Continental Hotel which serves as a refuge for assassins. Chris Collins (“Sons of Anarchy,” “The Wire”) will write the series and serve as showrunner.

Collins, Basil Iwanyk, Chad Stahelski, Derek Kolstad, David Leitch and Keanu Reeves will all executive produce while Stahelski, who co-helmed the first film and directed the second solo, will direct the premiere episode.

Starz will retain all domestic multiplatform pay TV and SVOD rights, while Lionsgate has all international and domestic distribution and home entertainment rights.

Albrecht also confirmed upcoming dates for Starz new series launches including the new “Howards End” mini-series on April 8th, and the half-hour dramas “Vida” and “Sweetbitter” both premiering on May 6th.
 

Doctor Omega

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On Friday came word that Starz was moving forward with “The Continental,” the upcoming TV series set in the same universe as “John Wick”. Speaking with Slashfilmafter the panel, Starz’s President of Original Programming Carmi Zlotnick revealed additional details about the series.

The big one is that with the series set in the hotel chain for assassins, where Ian McShane’s Winston is a manager, there is talk of having him potentially appearing on the series:

“There are certainly conversations about having Ian McShane back. The good part is we have some sort of insight into his schedule because of our involvement in American Gods. We’re in conversations with Ian.”

Zlotnick confirms that the intention is to produce eight hour long episodes of the series per season, and the main character will be a new one entering the Continental world around the same time the events of the film take place:

“He won’t be an assassin at the very beginning. I don’t want to give too much about the story away, but it’s somebody who is new to the world. His origin story, when you go back to the beginning, unknown to him, has some ties to the world.

I think the story will be told present day, but a lot of the present day drama will be informed by what happened in the past. I think the timeline for this show runs parallel with the timelines of the movies. So they’re contemporaneous but they’re separate. These are separate characters, separate stories. It’s set in the John Wick world.

Usually we think about eight episodes for a first season. Usually trying to do more can be a bridge too far, but we’re discussing it. I think it’s always got to fit the needs of the story as well. Yeah, this is an action show. [Director] Chad [Stahelski]’s involved, we expect that whole gun fu aspect to it. That’s the nature of the franchise.”

There’s still no word as to when this might go to air.
 

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
“John Wick 3” Filming Begins Early?


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The third film in the “John Wick” action series appears to be filming earlier than expected with That Hashtag Show reporting the film is slated to kick off filming March 1st in New York City ahead of further location shooting in Russia and Spain. That’s a little earlier than anticipated.

Chad Stahelski has yet to be officially attached as director, at present he’s dubbed himself a ‘prep director’ who has been setting things up for the new film. Now it looks like he’ll get to finish the franchise out.

Going by the working title “Alpha Cop,” the story takes place right after the ending of the second film. Numerous characters from that entry – including Laurence Fishburne’s Bowery King, Common’s Cassian and Ruby Rose’s Ares – are all returning.

Joining them will be Hiroyuki Sanada as the head of a Japanese crime syndicate, and a yet to be cast female co-star in their 30s or 40s with Reeves reportedly hoping to enlist his “Constantine” co-star Tilda Swinton for the role. It’s not clear if she’ll sign on at this time.

“John Wick 3” is currently sticking to its official release date of May 17th 2019.
 

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
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In the new film John Wick (Keanu Reeves) is .....


on the run as he’s being hunted for a global $14 million dollar open contract on his life, and for breaking the central rule of taking a life on Continental Hotel grounds – specifically a member of the High Table. John uses the service industry to stay alive as he fights and kills his way out of New York City.

Common, Halle Berry, Angelica Huston, Hiroyuki Sanada, Lance Reddick, Ruby Rose, Asia Kate Dillon, Mark Dacascos, Jason Mantzoukas, Yayan Ruhian, Cecep Arif Rahman, and Tiger Hu Chen co-star in the film which releases May 17th 2019.
 

Doctor Omega

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The first was a cult critical favourite that morphed into a fun, thrilling action hit, The second proved as good and made twice as much money at the box-office, so a third film in the series is now about to arrive – picking up from the cliffhanger ending of the second in which John (Keanu Reeves) has been rendered excommunicado, banned from The Continental and on the run in New York evading the $14 million hit that has been put out on him. All the same team is back including series regulars like Ian McShane, Lance Reddick, Ruby Rose and Laurence Fishburne while joining them this time out are the likes of Halle Berry, Anjelica Huston, Mark Dacascos, Asia Kate Dillon, Jason Mantzoukas and Robin Lord Taylor. Shot in Montreal, Russia, Morocco, and Spain, the film has been given a plum mid-May release which means Lionsgate is damn confident.
 

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
Halle Berry Trained Dogs For “John Wick 3”


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The recent launch of the first trailer for “John Wick Chapter 3 – Parabellum” ended on the action shot of Halle Berry’s character Sophia using her two trained pet dogs in combat against armed gunmen.

Speaking with Collider this week, the film’s director Chad Stahelski says they deliberately took their time finding the right trainer for the dogs who would make the scenario fun for the pooches. Five Belgian shepherds were trained for five months, but Stahelski didn’t want to use trainers hiding on set giving the dogs orders.

As a result, Berry herself was involved in the training throughout so she effectively became their on-screen dog trainer:

“When we cast Halle we had the big talk. Halle actually came, after all her fight rehearsals and gun rehearsals, she would go sit, and work, and play with the dogs for months on end so the dogs on-screen actually obey Halle. They’re not looking at a trainer. That was really fun.

Once you realized what was best for the animals, the dog and the process of how to get the most takes and the most precise takes out of him, we just reverse engineered back how to put it into choreography. We wanted to show that in the movie.

So just like our John Wick version where we don’t cut a lot, we tried to do longer take that track with Halle and see the dogs actually doing it, so you know we didn’t just cheat and do an insert of a dog chewing on something.”

In addition, the dogs in the film represent someone that Berry’s character has lost – not unlike Keanu Reeves’ character in the first film. “John Wick Chapter 3 – Parabellum” opens May 17th 2019.
 

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10


 
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