‘Ballerina' Director Len Wiseman Talks Scrapped ‘John Wick 3' Connections and the Truth About Additional Photography

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On the 2006 set of Live Free or Die Hard, Len Wiseman directed the demise of an uncredited FBI agent played by then-stuntman Chad Stahelski. 13 years later, Wiseman met Stahelski for dinner so he could pitch the stunty turned John Wick co-creator his take on the franchise's first sidequel known as Ballerina. After sharing a meal together, Stahelski, who's now helmed four chapters involving Keanu Reeves' taciturn assassin, quickly endorsed Wiseman's hiring to Lionsgate and producing partner, Thunder Road.
The John Wick brain trust ultimately made the right call, as Wiseman's actioner starring Ana de Armas now boasts his strongest reviews since Die Hard 4, including a rave from The Hollywood Reporter. He also received a kind word from one Tom Cruise after the star gushed about the film on a Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning red carpet.
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'It was wonderful. He reached out to me as well, and he's very kind. I love his energy of supporting other people's work. I think we need more of that, quite honestly,' Wiseman tells THR in support of Ballerina's June 6 theatrical release.
In October 2024, THR spoke to Stahelski for the 10th anniversary of John Wick (2014) before he eventually addressed the online chatter surrounding Ballerina's rumored creative overhaul. The franchise shepherd was well aware and visibly annoyed by the Internet's claims that he conducted several months of 'reshoots,' ultimately rejecting such notions by detailing the two weeks' worth of additional photography he oversaw with Wiseman. He noted that Wiseman's film did not have anywhere near the time or money of the recent John Wick films, and that he ran out of runway (and proper weather) to capture the entirety of Shay Hatten's script. (Hatten wrote the original Ballerina script on spec before it was purchased by Lionsgate and retrofitted for the Wick world.)
Wiseman is now raising the same points about resources, something the studio was willing to furnish upon seeing an early version of Ballerina and knowing that they were on the right track. Understandably, the online narrative bothered the director as well.
'[Chad and I] were both frustrated about it. It's a really frustrating thing [to hear such claims], and it happens more today than it did back in the day. There was additional shooting because the studio loved the movie,' Wiseman clarifies. 'We had to take out some scenes from the script originally because we just didn't have the resources or the schedule. So it was an exciting opportunity to go back and add more to the film. But when the press hears about that and the reports become whatever they are, it always has a negative connotation.'
One particular sequence that was scripted but never filmed during principal photography due to budget limitations is the extended opening in which young Eve Macarro (Victoria Comte) has to bear witness to her father's death at the hands of the Chancellor (Gabriel Byrne) and his cult that serves as the collective villain of the story. Essentially, Eve needed her visible source of vengeance à la John Wick's murder of John's cherished puppy, Daisy, which was a posthumous gift from his late wife.
'It was in the script, but we just didn't have the time and the schedule and everything needed to do that,' Wiseman says. 'So that was one of the scenes that we went back to do, and I was absolutely thrilled that the studio was so supportive of us going back to get what we wanted.'
The newly orphaned Eve is then mysteriously recruited by franchise mainstay Winston Scott (Ian McShane), the owner of New York City's assassin hotel, The Continental. He introduces Eve to Anjelica Huston's the Director, who reprises her role from John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum. Fueled by pain, Eve decides to join the Director's crime syndicate, Ruska Roma, that doubles as a New York City ballet company. John Wick himself was also raised by the Director, and after a 12-year time jump, grown-up Eve encounters the man they call the 'Baba Yaga' during his desperate return home in Chapter 3.
Wiseman went to great lengths to not only extend existing Chapter 3 moments, but also create new scenes from Eve's point of view during that timeline. With the movie taking place in between the third and fourth chapters of the series, Eve's revenge tale once considered even more potential story beats that would run parallel to Chapter 3.
'As a fan, there were potential moments that I was really excited to work into the movie. In the scene where Eve first arrives at the Continental, you'd see a bunch of motorcycles speeding in the background of the city on the bridge,' Wiseman recalls. 'That would've been cool for anyone who's really paying attention to detail. 'There's the samurai and John on motorcycles [from Chapter 3].''
Ballerina also once ended with Eve checking into the Continental, and Wiseman's one-time wish was to then conclude the film on another angle from Chapter 3.
'Right after Eve checks into the Continental, she'd go up to her room, and we'd see a view of the hotel to where we think the movie is ending,' Wiseman shares. 'Then we'd hear a screech, and the camera pans down just in time to catch two motorcycles [John and Mark Dacascos' Zero] crashing at the base of the Continental.'
Below, during a recent conversation with THR, Wiseman also discusses the other franchise characters that were briefly considered for returns, before explaining why his design of the grenade snowball fight is especially meaningful to him.
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Tom Cruise paid quite a compliment. That must've been a welcome message to receive during your press tour.
It was wonderful, yeah. He reached out to me as well, and he's very kind. I love his energy of supporting other people's work. 'Let's go back to the movies!' I think we need more of that, quite honestly.
My positive, and equally impactful, reaction to the film came out amid this commotion over the embargo language, and so I went back and checked what I was originally sent. And the messaging that I received didn't have the wording that raised eyebrows. It was standard 'spoiler-free social reaction' language. Anyway, were you pretty frustrated by that miscommunication?
Yeah, of course. I've been so busy with the premieres that I don't really even know much about it. I know [the miscommunication] was on [publicity's] part. The other thing I knew is that they're really not wanting to give away spoilers of any kind. There's quite a few mysteries and such, but I can't even really speak to it because I don't actually know.
The road to began with . co-creator Chad Stahelski worked for you on that set?
Yeah, Chad got killed [as an uncredited FBI agent and credited stuntman]. He pops up in there with a friend of mine [Brad Martin] that I grew up with; Brad was also working with that team as stunt coordinator. We shot that Baltimore sequence, and it was supposed to be the first action scene when Timothy Olyphant's character does an onslaught on McLane [Bruce Willis] and Farrell [Justin Long]. Chad and Brad are the two FBI guys that have a firefight with the helicopter gunman. So Chad's got a glorious death scene, and we've known each other for quite a long time just by coming up in the business together.
You've made action films in the 2000s, 2010s and the 2020s, so you've seen trends come and go. Now that you've worked inside it, do you fully understand why the Wickian brand of action has set the bar the last 11 years?
When you really can see that it's your actor doing the action, there's truly a different kind of feeling. A lot of people talk about the longer takes, and then there are longer takes that add stitches to make them even longer. Personally, that feels more like the director showing off his long take, as opposed to the longer takes in Wick that I'm a fan of. You don't give the audience a second to take a breath, and it becomes more of an investment, especially if it's actor-driven action. [Writer's Note: In two of our previous chats, Stahelski has also railed against stitched oners.]
So there's many reasons why I think John Wick set the bar in terms of choreography, but its very specific tone of action is really important too. You never want to laugh in the face of the character action that's happening because then the stakes are gone. It could be a really fun sequence and tone, but if the action doesn't have stakes and danger to it — and the characters are cracking jokes within the danger — as an audience member, you go, 'If you're not going to be afraid, then I'm not going to be afraid for you.'
So there's many levels, but if I had to really boil it down, it's actor-based action that's really had an impact. That's what Keanu and Chad together brought to it. There's something about staying in the shot with the actor. There's a difference between watching a cool action scene and watching a cool action scene and going, 'Holy shit, that's him,' or, 'That's her.' It gives you a different kind of reaction.
Did essentially serve as Ana de Armas' audition for Eve Macarro?
No, not at all, but that sequence was absolutely fantastic. I would love to see that character show up again; it was just too brief. We had already gotten involved with Ana. I had Ana in mind for quite a while before that. I went and saw a private screening of No Time to Die, and that confirmed her casting even more. So I was excited when I saw that cool moment, but she was already involved in the whole process.
takes place between the third and fourth films. You revisit the events of, using a Rashomon-type approach to show Eve's point of view on John's return to Ruska Roma. How challenging was it to expand and maintain continuity?
It was definitely a challenge and an excitement. I love a challenge. It gives me fuel to be creative. So I had a really fun time taking a different perspective on certain elements of Chapter 3, and I was really into it. Early on, the moment that I thought would resonate and people would remember is when John comes to meet the Director [Anjelica Huston]. We're now looking at it from Eve's point of view before he mentions, 'It wasn't just a puppy.' It took a lot of time to recreate the sets exactly. I wanted to really recreate those moments from a different perspective so that we weren't just using footage from the existing film.
I watched the scene again for the timing and spacing, and there's a little detail when John and the Director walk down the stairs. John looked [to his left] in that moment where they stop on the stairs, and so there was space to add a piece where he looks up slightly and sees Eve. And so we got to see that moment from her side. I love that stuff. I've done sequels and remakes, and Ballerina just doesn't feel that way. In fact, I actually think the word spinoff is misleading for this.
John meets Eve before she goes on to complete her first contract, and then you jump ahead two months. Does that mean John returns to the movie Winston (Ian McShane) shot him off the roof at the end of ?
Yes.
So it's after he's recovered a little bit? I just want to get the timeline right.
Yes.
Did Keanu's days on set have the same electricity that his mythical boogeyman character has in the story?
He really does have that effect. It's such a contradiction too because he's one of the nicest, most generous — forget actors — humans that we have. So there is a reverence when he walks on set in the suit. He is John Wick, even when he's just walking around on set. It's similar to when Harrison Ford puts on the hat and carries the whip. It's pretty awesome, and it gives you chills.
Did Keanu have you trim his dialogue at all? He tends to have a 'less is more' mindset with Wick.
He did! He's very collaborative. I had a really great experience getting into his head about the character. We got together at the hotel before shooting, and we essentially did that. He absolutely is the guy who is like, 'I don't need to say that. What if I don't say this, and I just do it with a look?' So, yeah, there was a culling of dialogue.
Daniel Bernhardt plays a 'Scarred Eye Assassin,' and I bring this up because he played a notable character who John Wick killed in the first movie. Is the scar meant to imply that his original character survived? Or is the scar supposed to signal that he's an entirely new character? [Note: Bernhardt also did stunt work on the second and third films. Fans spotted someone in that resembles him, but it's still uncredited and unconfirmed.]
We had a lot of talks about how much we should cover Bernhardt's face. It's an ambiguous, fun gag as to what people make of him. But in the scope of my story, I'm treating him as a different character. At the same time, I wanted people to recognize him.
Rooney (Unity Phelan) was the first ballerina we met at Ruska Roma in . Was there ever a discussion about bringing her back? Or would that have been too confusing in the middle of Eve's own introduction? [Note: Rooney is the name of the main character in Shay Hatten's original script, before it was retrofitted for the Wick franchise.]
There absolutely was very early on, but you're exactly right. I thought it would cause confusion. She's the one highlighted ballerina character that we see in Chapter 3, and it just would have caused a hiccup of clarity.
It was bittersweet to see Lance Reddick's Charon one final time. Knowing that this was the last of Lance's footage, did you repurpose or recontextualize anything just so you could use it all?
Honestly, no. Everything that we did is very important to the film. Everything that we shot is in there, and it's in there for the story and the movie. I'm so happy that I got the chance to actually work with him and have him in this film. Lance would say this, but there aren't really any good guys in the Wick universe. It's a universe of all bad guys in a sense, but I do believe that Lance's character, Charon, is the heart and soul of the series.
I love that you perpetuated the running gag involving the Continental. Every movie introduces a new room or wing that we didn't know was there previously, and the dimensions never align with the exterior of the building.
(Laughs.) I remember talking to Chad about it. He showed me the production designer's side view of all the Continental's levels and what could be underground. But they decided to just keep it as a running gag, like you said. If you look at that building, it's the tallest, skinniest structure. This is a weird reference, but it's like The Man with Two Brains. Steve Martin walks into that small condo door only to see a castle interior, and he's like, 'From the outside, it does not look this roomy.' (Laughs.) So it's almost like you enter a door, and you cross over into this slightly heightened world with all these rooms. So I think it'll continue to grow now that it's been destroyed. You'll find more of the underground sections of it.
I spoke to Chad for the 10th anniversary of , and we eventually discussed 's additional photography. He quickly expressed a bit of frustration that the 'couple of weeks' of extra shooting that you guys did was so blown out of proportion. Ultimately, are you just glad that the studio backed the movie to such a degree that you could add more firepower to it?
A hundred percent. We were both frustrated about it. It's a really frustrating thing [to hear such claims], and it happens more today than it did back in the day. There was additional shooting because the studio loved the movie. We had to take out some scenes from the script originally because we just didn't have the resources or the schedule. [Lionsgate] then really believed in the [early cut of the] movie after we put it together, so it was an exciting opportunity to go back and add more to the film. But when the press hears about that and the reports become whatever they are, it always has a negative connotation. But I'm just so glad that we were able to go back.
For instance, it was really important to me that we showed Ana's character as a little girl, and we didn't have that opening before [additional photography]. It was in the script, but we just didn't have the time and the schedule and everything needed to do that. So that was one of the scenes that we went back to do, and I was absolutely thrilled that the studio was so supportive of us going back to get what we wanted. [Note: Wiseman has noted elsewhere that Reeves was not involved in additional photography.]
To name a few, the grenade fight, the car crash in the alleyway and the flamethrower sequences are so impressive.
Thank you.
What are your individual highlights from each?
I love all their different stories. The grenade sequence means a lot because it was the first action sequence that I wrote up a while ago. (Laughs.) When we were developing the script from stage one, I asked, 'What if there was a snowball fight with grenades? What would that be like?' The process of shooting it was a fun one to design. There were a lot of trap doors for our stunt players to go through before the pyrotechnics went off, and that allowed us to stay in the one shot with Ana. So it was just something that I had not seen before.
There's only so many weapons available to create an action sequence, and having an actual gunfight with flamethrowers has never been seen on-screen. If you're pitching an action sequence to a studio and you want to put together a rip reel or an example for them to watch, it's a good thing when you can't find examples or references. That's when you know you're onto something unique.
I know there's some VFX involved, but I just don't understand how you can execute the flamethrower fight without burning the set down and inflicting third-degree burns on the entire cast and crew.
We worked with the best stunt team around in 87eleven, so it was a really safe set. And there were very limited visual effects. It's essentially a practical sequence despite some enhancements. So it was controlled, but it absolutely was dangerous, especially being inside with both of those flamethrowers going off at the same time.
I've done action sequences with helicopters, and helicopters at close range are terrifying on set. They sound terrifying. If you get on a helicopter, it feels dangerous, especially when it's doing stunts that are coming in low to your cameras and everything. The flamethrowers have that same effect, and I've never utilized a weapon that had that much of a dangerous vibe about it. But it's unlike anything that I've seen, and that's the goal of every sequence.
[Note: The following section contains very mild spoilers, primarily who did not appear and what did not happen in .]
The movie ends with the audience wanting to know what's next for Eve. Do you know what's next for her?
In fantasy-type thinking, yes, but I really just concentrated on this film. I wanted this film to be the best that it could possibly be, but it's hard not to wonder. Often, when I am asked that, I'll say, 'No, I want to wait and see what happens.' And that's true to a point, but when you're developing something and you get so immersed in a character, you have to build out what their story is before and after the movie you're making. That's how you really understand the character, so that's always on my mind.
The movie ends a bit ambiguously on purpose. Who's putting the contract out on her? I'd like to hear theories about where it goes. I definitely have my theory. I would love it if it were to continue, and I think it would surprise people where we would go with it. So we're just waiting for what the reaction is to this one, but yes, I totally have fantasy plans about where Eve would go.
So no one ever said, 'Hey, tee this ending up for to pick up where you left off'?
No, not at all.
There's a cool scene at a table where Eve has to assemble and fire a weapon before someone else does. Was there ever a draft that had her on the other side of that table?
Oh, interesting. No.
That's where I thought the movie was heading. She'd be forced to come back to Ruska Roma and sit on the other side.
When the other character says to Eve, 'I'm you in ten fucking years,' let's see what happens in ten fucking years. (Laughs.) Eve is still going on her path, and it's a brutal world. We see a darker side to the Director's character in this one, and the rules are in place for a good reason. They abide by their code and their rules, and even if you're a surrogate mother role like the Director, you have to protect your tribe. I remember talking to Anjelica about putting a darker slant on her character, and her eyes lit up.
Did you consider any other franchise cameos?
Laurence Fishburne's Bowery King was discussed early on as we were fine tuning the timeline, and then there was a discussion about Caine [Donnie Yen] at one point. It's really finding what fits the story best. Ruska Roma was our base, so it allowed us different windows of crossing over into the parallel timeline.
But there weren't just characters considered. As a fan, there were potential moments that I was really excited to work into the movie. In the scene where Eve first arrives at the Continental, you'd see a bunch of motorcycles speeding in the background of the city on the bridge. You always have to make the timeline work, but that would've been cool for anyone who's really paying attention to detail. 'There's the samurai and John on motorcycles [from Chapter 3].'
That would've been cool.
Yeah, at one point, before the timeline became exactly what it is, there was another idea that I liked at the end. Right after Eve talks to Winston and checks into the Continental, she'd go up to her room, and we'd see a view of the hotel to where we think the movie is ending. Then we'd hear a screech, and the camera pans down just in time to catch two motorcycles [John and Mark Dacascos' Zero] crashing at the base of the Continental. Fucking cool, right?
You should add those details to your special edition of in ten years.
I know! I love stuff like that. Some people might go, 'What's going on?' But for the people who are in on it, they'd be like, 'That's just cool.'***Ballerina is now playing in movie theaters nationwide.
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