‘John Wick: Chapter 2’ Exceeds Kill Count Of First Film; Watch Keanu Reeves’ Grueling Gun-Fu Training [Video]
By"John Wick: Chapter 2" is almost here and it won't shy away from gore and violence just like its predecessor. A new featurette for the upcoming film was recently released and showed the rigorous ways that Keanu Reeves undertook for the titular character.
Director Chad Stahelski commended Reeves' dedication to the role, saying that the actor quickly went "full throttle" for the character. The new video showed that the installment will still feature the long takes and complex footwork associated with the original flick's action sequences.
The clip featured Reeves and his co-stars' intense training sessions. Other scenes showed the actor doing car stunts, and gun and knife training.
Those trainings proved to be fruitful based on what was seen in the new featurette. Reeves showed off how to draw a gun fast, speedy trigger pulls and gun transitions. That, combined with several martial arts techniques, resulted to a fighting routine called gun-fu. You can watch the featurette at the end of this report.
A new batch of images from the movie was also recently released by Lionsgate. Check them out by clicking on the link below.
The photos showcased recurring characters portrayed by Lance Reddick, Ian McShane and Bridget Moynahan, along with newcomers played by Ruby Rose, Common and Riccardo Scamarcio. "John Wick: Chapter 2" will also reunite Reeves with his "Matrix" co-star Laurence Fishburne, who will portray the Underworld's The Bowery King in the upcoming action film. The Bowery King's introduction will likely set up a newer, bigger world and a variety of baddies that John is yet to meet, Screen Rant reported.
"John Wick: Chapter 2" will have more kills than the original movie, with producer Basil Iwanyk saying that they have "expanded quite a bit on the fight style" established by the first film. The latter had a total of 84 kills but the installment exceeded that with 141 kills, according to film critic Kevin McCarthy's tweet.
The movie bows in theaters on Feb. 10, with both "The Lego Batman Movie" and "Fifty Shades Darker" as its fiercest competitors. Starbreeze and Lionsgate are releasing a VR first-person shooter game in tandem with the film. The game is titled "John Wick Chronicles" and is launching on the HTC Vive virtual reality headset on Feb. 9.
The game, which is available for pre-order on Steam for $19.99, takes players inside the Continental Hotel. They are tasked to assassinate enemies in the style of John Wick.