Stahelski, Chad

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    How ‘Ballerina’ Set People on Fire

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    Ana de Armas wields a flamethrower in “From the World of John Wick: Ballerina” and torches, well, a lot. Here’s how they made that sequence come to life. (And yes, the flames are mostly real.)When Chad Stahelski, best known as the driving force behind the “John Wick” franchise, was in high school he volunteered with his local fire department. Over the years the images from that experience stuck in his head, and the former stuntman started to dream up an action sequence involving lots and lots of fire.“I’m like, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if I combined fire and water, and we had a flamethrower fight?” Stahelski, a producer of “From the World of John Wick: Ballerina,” said in a video interview. “Two guys with flamethrowers and they are going to shoot each other.” Watching an early cut of “Ballerina” he realized he had the ideal vehicle for his fire dreams: It would be a showstopper for the star assassin, Eve, played by Ana de Armas.“How do I make her look smart? How do I make her look badass? It wasn’t about fighting more guys,” he said. “It’s like, OK, let’s give her something that really shows a skill set. And that’s when we went to fire.”The result is a bravura third-act set piece in which Eve torches her enemies in an Alpine village, going flamethrower to flamethrower with a massive villainous henchman named Dex (Robert Maaser). Instead of using digital flames, “Ballerina,” directed by Len Wiseman, mostly went for the real thing. According to Stahelski, 90 to 95 percent of the fires onscreen are “unenhanced real burns.”To accomplish this, Stahelski called in an expert in the world of movie fire, the stuntman Jayson Dumenigo, who developed a long-lasting protective burn gel for stunt performers that recently won him an honor from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Even Dumenigo was skeptical they could accomplish what Stahelski had in mind when he first heard the pitch.Ana de Armas uses a real flamethrower as a weapon in “From the World of John Wick: Ballerina.”Murray Close/LionsgateWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in Movies

      Ready for ‘Ballerina’? Take a Pirouette Through ‘John Wick’ Lore.

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      With the release of “From the World of John Wick: Ballerina,” a guide to the expanded Wick cinematic universe.Early in the 2019 film “John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum,” our hero enters what may be the world’s most peculiar dance studio. Part ballet academy, part dojo, the expansive space is also the Manhattan headquarters of the Ruska Roma, a Russian crime syndicate that first took in Wick when he was just a boy and taught him to kill. Onstage, a lithe danseuse is ordered by her instructor to perform pirouette after exhausting pirouette till she drops.In “From the World of John Wick: Ballerina” (in theaters June 6), this small glimpse of the school is expanded tenfold. That spinning dancer, Eve, played by Ana De Armas, is now the star of the show. Over the course of the film, we get a closer look at the canvas of tattoos on her back and learn how she came to get them. We find out about the school’s traditions and initiations, as well as the Russian myths and legends that shape its mission.Since this is a Wick film, we also get to watch Eve take out fearsome fighters with pots and pans, swords and knives, grenades and ice skates and flame throwers and car doors. There’s a lot to see. But with all that inventive mayhem going on, do viewers really need to know that, say, Eve’s spirit animal is the kikimora, a haglike creature from Slavic mythology?For lovers of the franchise, the answer is a resounding yes, please. In online chats, fans debate such minutiae as exactly who is in the Ruska Roma (is Winston, the owner of the New York Continental Hotel, secretly a member?), while scholars debate the franchise’s folklore and economic systems in books like “The Worlds of John Wick: The Year’s Work at the Continental Hotel.”De Armas plays eve, who was trained to be an assassin from a young age.Larry D. Horricks/Lionsgate“When we made the first Wick movie, we thought we were just making these background rules,” said Basil Iwanyk, one of the producers of “Ballerina.” “We had no idea the lore would become one of the above-the-title stars of the movies.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in Television

      ‘Cowboy Bebop’ Creator Discusses His New Anime ‘Lazarus’

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      In an interview, Shinichiro Watanabe discusses his latest anime, “Lazarus,” a pharmaceutical mystery set in the near future.Shinichiro Watanabe’s first anime, “Cowboy Bebop,” was quite an opening act. A story of space bounty hunters trying to scrape by, its genre mash-up of westerns, science fiction and noir, with a jazzy soundtrack, was a critical and commercial success in Japan and beyond. Its American debut on Adult Swim, in 2001, is now considered a milestone in the popularization of anime in the United States.Not one to repeat himself, Watanabe followed up “Bebop” with a story about samurai and hip-hop (“Samurai Champloo,” 2004); a coming-of-age story about jazz musicians (“Kids on the Slope,” 2012); a mystery thriller about teenage terrorists (“Terror in Resonance,” 2014); an animated “Blade Runner” sequel (“Blade Runner Black Out 2022,” 2017); and a sci-fi musical show about two girls on Mars (“Carole & Tuesday,” 2019).Now, he has returned to the kind of sci-fi action that made his name with “Lazarus,” streaming on Max and airing on Adult Swim, with new episodes arriving on Sundays. The show is set in 2055, after the disappearance of a doctor who discovered a miracle drug that has no side effects. Three years later, the doctor resurfaces with an announcement: The drug had a three-year half-life, and everyone who took it will die in 30 days unless someone finds him and the cure he developed.Watanabe has never been shy about being a fan of cinema. “Cowboy Bebop,” for instance, makes specific references to films like “Alien” and “2001: A Space Odyssey.” For “Lazarus,” Watanabe went further, teaming with a Hollywood filmmaker, the “John Wick” director Chad Stahelski, to design the thrilling, kinetic action sequences of the anime.In a video interview, Watanabe, speaking through the interpreters (and co-producers on the series) Takenari Maeda and Saechan, discussed the making of “Lazarus,” the timeliness of the show’s story and how watching the original “Blade Runner” inspired his multicultural and inclusive anime casts. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.Unlike your previous sci-fi projects, “Lazarus” takes place not on a distant planet or far into the future, but in our world just 30 years from now. Why was that important?We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More