CinemaJohn Wick almost had an alternative ending – and the dog wouldn’t die

First film in one of today’s main action film franchises, John Wick – Back to the Game (2014) almost had an alternative ending, in which the protagonist’s puppy, played by Keanu Reevesdid not die.

In an interview with Business Insider to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the film, which premiered on November 27, 2014 in Brazilian cinemas, Chad Stahelski and David Leitch They talked about the conflicts they had with the studio to be able to carry out the acclaimed project.

One of the change requests they least liked was the death of their dog. John Wickwho goes in search of revenge after murdering his pet. “We were told, ‘It’s bad luck, you can’t do that! No one will want to see that on screen; you’ll alienate the audience,'” he recalled Leitch.

And I thought, ‘Let’s execute people at point blank range; killing the dog is one thing, but what about the brutal massacre of all these human beings? Will they be able to accept this?’ They didn’t understand that we were making a genre film. We’re fans of the genre and we know that it’s those difficult moments that make the moments memorable.

Right away, Stahelski talked about an alternative option that the studio commented: “In the coming weeks, it was suggested that we film an alternative ending revealing that the puppy is, in fact, not dead. But Keanu defended us. Eventually, they just felt, ‘F*** it, let’s see what these guys can do.'”

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Furthermore, the two artists also heard complaints about their beards. John Wick. “We were trying to make a modern Greek mythology fantasy film. That’s unconventional. So we wanted to do something cool with Keanu,” he said Stahelski.

But the money people wanted to see Keanu f***ing Reeves. Keanu of Thrill Seekers, Keanu of Maximum Speed. And I don’t know if this exists anymore, but at the time the powers that be told us that you don’t cover the protagonist’s face with a beard.

“We feel like you can’t fire us, so on the first day of filming, we put Keanu in the beard, and later that week, when they watched the dailies, with the cinematographer’s now-famous half-light shots Jonathan Selapeople absolutely loved it,” concluded the filmmaker.

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