When “John Wick” exploded into theaters on October 24, 2014, film fans lost their hearts in the film’s ingenious manual combat and ingenious amalgams of gunplay. It was double-impressive due to the seemingly effortless facility for performing many of Keanu Reeves’ own stunts. Clearly no one was surprised that the “The Matrix” franchise’s star could convincingly fight and shoot, but the degree of difficulty seemed off the charts. When you think you’ve seen all the iterations of martial arts combat on screen, stuntman-turned-director Chad Stahelski shows action addicts that there’s still plenty of room for slowdown innovation.
advertisement
If you’re a hardcore fan of this genre, you know that filmmakers have previously fused these shootings with hand-to-hand combat. Wachowskis first introduced the idea in “The Matrix.” This led Kurt Wimmer to go to Gonzo completely by inventing “Gun Kata” with his funny “equilibrium” in his slut dic. Wimmer was far ahead of the game, so the Harvey and Bob Weinstein duo dumped the film into the theater at the end of 2002. “Equilibrium” has since become a cult hit, but it takes another decade for the studio and mainstream audience to fully embrace the art of “Gunfu” (a term coined 23 years ago by Chud Webmaster Nick Nunziata).
advertisement
Stahelski didn’t invent Gun-Fu, but he definitely took it to the next level with the amazing 87th stunt crew in the first “John Wick” movie. This fighting style has so far been more refined than the four feature sequel and only TV spinoff (“Continent: From the World of John Wick”). For those interested in the origins and development of Gun-Fu over the years, there is a behind-the-scenes documentary from director Jeffrey Doe, entitled “Wick Is Pain,” and one of the film’s most surprising and obvious things is that Jason Statham had the honor of introducing Punch-Kick-Bang Discipline.
Jason Statham’s safe was too grounded for Gun-Fu
/ Film Ben Pearson recently interviewed Stahelsky about the documentary (which the filmmakers did not direct or produce), and at the end of the chat pointed out that “safety” in Boaz Yakin’s action thriller is almost zero in this very deadly martial arts 47NORT format. Statham isn’t a violet reduction when it comes to performing as many stunts as possible, but “safety” turns out to be a mistaken fit to the crew’s gun-FU antics.
advertisement
Stahelski revealed that they are very friendly with Statham (47north did a stunt about David Ayer’s “The Beekeeper”), but admitted to introducing Gun-Fu in a relatively grounded film about a homeless former Cop and a former MMA fighter. An ear for movie fans:
“Logistically, it’s very strange for that film. Tone, logistically, financially, it didn’t work. We were the goofy guy who was pitching it. We knew it wasn’t a great character choice for him. We could disarm restaurants and stuff.
advertisement
Stahelski also discussed how the development of 47NORTH’s new action filmmaking technology will come from “f***ing at the gym.” He is embarrassed that “John Wick”‘s space action has changed to the Rooney Tunes fighting style (reminiscent of “The Joyful Natty” by Michael Davis, “The Joyful Natty” starring Clive Owen and Monica Bellucci). Perhaps they can put Statham in Wickgunfu’s fun somewhere on the line. You will feel like you both missed the opportunity not to embrace him with Keanu before aging this bone bruising genre.
