<\/p>\n
\n\tWhile promoting Peacock\u2019s John Wick spinoff series The Continental: From the World of John Wick<\/em>, executive producer Basil Iwanyk acknowledges the elephant in the room: How does one explore the John Wick<\/em> universe without the eponymous star \u2014 played by Keanu Reeves \u2014 himself?<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIt\u2019s hard to look at: OK, why does a movie or franchise work?\u201d Iwanyk, who\u2019s worked on the entire John Wick <\/em>franchise, told The Hollywood Reporter<\/em> at a recent press junket. \u201cThere\u2019s a million different ways to look at it, and you just really don\u2019t know. Of course, there\u2019s research and bullshit, but it\u2019s something in your gut. This is a prequel in the \u201970s that doesn\u2019t have Keanu and John Wick in it. Will it work?\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIt was about the franchise and the health of the franchise and what attracts people to the franchise, as [much as] it was [about] telling a great story,\u201d he continued. \u201cWe\u2019re just kind of going and going and going and there isn\u2019t that much time for self reflection of \u2018Why is this working?\u2019\u2026 We\u2019re like, let\u2019s just go forward and do things that we think are cool, and hopefully people agree. This show was the first time where we were going out of our comfort zone. And that was invigorating and exciting, but terrifying.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tDirected by Albert Hughes, The Continental <\/em>is a prequel to the John Wick<\/em> films that takes place in 1970s New York City. The show will have three parts, exploring the origin behind the iconic hotel-for-assassins. Following young hotel proprietor Winston Scott (played by Ian McShane in the franchise films and Colin Woodell in the series), The Continental <\/em>dives into how Winston would ultimately seize the hotel to take his place at the helm of the hit man sanctuary. The series also stars Mel Gibson, Mishel Prada and Ben Robson.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThe show has far exceeded my expectations,\u201d says executive producer Erica Lee, who also worked on the first John Wick<\/em> film. \u201cWhenever you\u2019re making anything, I always say the ingredients can be great, but the cake can still taste like shit, right?\u201d, adding, \u201cWe were really lucky with Albert at the helm. He has a very distinctive vision and also came in as a fan of the movies and loves certain aspects of it, but also wanted to push certain thematics and things his own way.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tWhen Hughes first got the job, he didn\u2019t hesitate to start conversations with John Wick<\/em> director Chad Stahelski. \u201cWe did a Zoom and he was excited to talk and tell me [to] basically do what you need to do that inspires you,\u201d Hughes says of his early discussions with the director, who told him to do his own thing. \u201cI was happy he said it because I don\u2019t think I would ever want to go into any man or woman\u2019s sandbox and duplicate what they do.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAnd amid the double strike, below-the-line talent are taking center stage on Hollywood PR campaigns, as studios are forced to get creative without actors and writers. One week before the show\u2019s premiere, reporters and influencers were invited to The Hollywood Roosevelt hotel for a day of assassin training, featuring a behind-the-scenes look at The Continental<\/em>\u2019s stunts, sound, costume and production design. Hughes calls the event \u201crefreshing to see\u201d from Peacock.<\/p>\n \n\tAt the interactive-style junket, action director Larnell Stovall picked out volunteers from the audience to learn a brief stunt sequence, while standing on a live set inspired by the show. \u201cWe don\u2019t normally get interviewed,\u201d says Stovall about the unique event. \u201cWe get a shout out from the actors maybe every now and then\u2026 but that\u2019s what we signed up for.\u201d The stunt expert hopes that this kind of exposure for below-the-line work will inspire others interested in the field.<\/p>\n \n\tThere was also a costume tour from designer Sarah Arthur, along with a panel with Iwanyk and Lee. Supervising sound editor Luke Gibleon gave a demonstration on how the sound team enhances the immersive quality of an action scene. \u201cPeople in my field \u2014 we do often feel like we\u2019re unseen and unheard,\u201d says Gibleon. \u201cThis is an opportunity to help hopefully paint a picture of what we do that maybe hasn\u2019t been shared before.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIt\u2019s like a silver lining,\u201d adds Hughes. \u201cIt\u2019s so wonderful to see these people get their due.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe Continental: From the World of John Wick<\/em> premieres Friday on Peacock.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n #Continental #EPs #John #Wick #SpinOff #Keanu #Reeves #Hollywood #Reporter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" While promoting Peacock\u2019s John Wick spinoff series The Continental: From the World of John Wick,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1617,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2581,2582,1821,1324,2584,2585,1822,2088,2583],"class_list":["post-1616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-news","tag-continental","tag-eps","tag-hollywood","tag-john","tag-keanu","tag-reeves","tag-reporter","tag-spinoff","tag-wick"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/demo3.aiwalls.com\/thesemovies\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/NUP_201619_00027-EMBED-2023.jpg",1000,669,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/demo3.aiwalls.com\/thesemovies\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/NUP_201619_00027-EMBED-2023-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/demo3.aiwalls.com\/thesemovies\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/NUP_201619_00027-EMBED-2023-300x201.jpg",300,201,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/demo3.aiwalls.com\/thesemovies\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/NUP_201619_00027-EMBED-2023-768x514.jpg",640,428,true],"large":["https:\/\/demo3.aiwalls.com\/thesemovies\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/NUP_201619_00027-EMBED-2023.jpg",640,428,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/demo3.aiwalls.com\/thesemovies\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/NUP_201619_00027-EMBED-2023.jpg",1000,669,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/demo3.aiwalls.com\/thesemovies\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/NUP_201619_00027-EMBED-2023.jpg",1000,669,false],"chromenews-featured":["https:\/\/demo3.aiwalls.com\/thesemovies\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/NUP_201619_00027-EMBED-2023.jpg",1000,669,false],"chromenews-large":["https:\/\/demo3.aiwalls.com\/thesemovies\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/NUP_201619_00027-EMBED-2023-825x575.jpg",825,575,true],"chromenews-medium":["https:\/\/demo3.aiwalls.com\/thesemovies\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/NUP_201619_00027-EMBED-2023-590x410.jpg",590,410,true],"arpw-thumbnail":["https:\/\/demo3.aiwalls.com\/thesemovies\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/NUP_201619_00027-EMBED-2023-50x50.jpg",50,50,true]},"author_info":{"display_name":"admin","author_link":"https:\/\/demo3.aiwalls.com\/thesemovies\/?author=1"},"category_info":"Movie News<\/a>","tag_info":"Movie News","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo3.aiwalls.com\/thesemovies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo3.aiwalls.com\/thesemovies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo3.aiwalls.com\/thesemovies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo3.aiwalls.com\/thesemovies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo3.aiwalls.com\/thesemovies\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo3.aiwalls.com\/thesemovies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo3.aiwalls.com\/thesemovies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo3.aiwalls.com\/thesemovies\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo3.aiwalls.com\/thesemovies\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo3.aiwalls.com\/thesemovies\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}