John Wick franchise director Chad Stahelski has given his verdict on Eva Longoria saving the original film from being shelved 24 hours before it was due to start filming.
The action films, which follow a hitman who is reluctant to return to the work after retiring, have gone on to gross $1bn across four movies but almost weren’t made after the creators found themselves $6m short.
Stahelski and David Leitch revealed that the Desperate Housewives star “came to the rescue”, and that the investment “paid back significantly for her”.
Speaking on The Hollywood Reporter‘s It Happened in Hollywood podcast, Stahelski admitted he didn’t know Longoria was the person to have saved his film until after John Wick was released.
“About a week before we went to production, we had gap financing,” he explained. “We had an investor fall out for about $6 million. So when you’re [making an] $18 million movie, that kills you.”
He continued: “We didn’t have any money. So a lot of the crew left. We were losing locations. We were literally 24 hours away from failing.
Despite Stahelski, Leitch, and star Keanu Reeves pouring all available finances they had into the film, they still didn’t have enough.
Then the film’s producer, Basil Iwanyk, announced a new investor had been found 48 hours before they pulled the plug on the film.
“We didn’t think twice about it and went right into the movie, only to find out nearly a year later that it was Eva Longoria,” said Stahelski.
“So we literally, the next day, called her up and took her to lunch to say thank you at the Chateau Marmont and just couldn’t thank her enough.”
The director said he and the Desperate Housewives star have joked about her good investment instincts in the years since the film came out in 2014.
“She’s like, ‘It was an investment and I didn’t know what was going on. I didn’t know what it was. But it sounded kind of weird and cool,’” he says. “So I hope she got every penny back. I hope she made millions of dollars.”
It comes shortly after Longoria discussed her John Wicks involvement with Business Insider and revealed her only regret is not being involved with the film’s sequels.
John Wick (2014) was followed by John Wick: Chapter 2 in 2017, John Wick: Chapter 3- Parabellum in 2019, and John Wick: Chapter 4, last year.
“What I’m p***ed off about is I wasn’t connected to the rest of them,” Longoria said. “This was a one-time thing. That was the gamble. But that was my only mistake, not being attached to all of the films.”
Although Longoria was not involved in the movie’s sequels, she said of her total earnings: “You know, I would have to check.
“More than double [$6 million], for sure.”
