John Wick: Chapter 4 Director says The Hong Kong Massacre inspired one scene
Yeah, I'm thinking he's a gamer
In the last 15 years or so, we’ve seen a lot of movies and heard from countless directors who have taken inspiration from gaming when crafting films. The latest to admit to this is Chad Stahelski, director of John Wick: Chapter 4.
In an interview with Slash Film, Stahelski was talking about how the ideas for some scenes and shots came together. In one instance, a somewhat recent title helped bring a unique perspective to the John Wick franchise.
“If you’re ever lacking creativity, handcuff yourself and then figure it out, because then you’ll do something you haven’t done before. So top shots were never very cool with us, with lighting or choreography, because it gets old quick. But I had seen this video game and I’ll throw a shout-out – I think it was called “Hong Kong Massacre” – they did this top shot and we had been doing so much with the big muzzle flashes and it just kind of clicked like, “Well, if I’m above, we shoot like this and we shoot like this, and it draws these cool lines with the muzzle flash, and if I get the right flicker effect, it’s like Etch A Sketch. It looks really cool.” And it was a different way to amp up the action and keep you in that video game mode that John Wick’s kind of known for, that first-person shooter kind of thing.”
It’s certainly interesting to note that while Stahelski was influenced by The Hong Kong Massacre, many fans thought the scene played out like something in Hotline Miami. While top-down games have been around for decades, Hotline Miami certainly fits more with John Wick in terms of style and violent content. Also, there’s no doubt Hotline Miami influenced the devs on The Hong Kong Massacre. While Stahelski got to The Hong Kong Massacre first, it seems likely he’d get a kick out of Hotline Miami if he checks it out!
Comments (0)