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Keanu Reeves and Chad Stahelski are a match made in heaven, Together, this actor-director duo was instrumental in creating one of Hollywood’s biggest cult action franchises, John Wick. From the first film in 2014 to 2023’s mega-blockbuster John Wick 4, Reeves and Stahelski have succeeded in reinventing the genre through gritty and realistic action sequences.

Keanu Reeves with Chad Stahelski

One of the unique features of these combats was the absence of high-tech CGI effects with Stahelski resorting to a lot of real-time hand-to-hand duels to create a natural ambiance. Interestingly though, the director was forced to spend an exorbitant amount of money on CGI involving Keanu Reeves’ character John Wick’s famous dog.

2014’s John Wick starring Keanu Reeves was the beginning of a hugely popular franchise that has just completed its 4th installment in 2023. Apart from the stylized and slick action sequences that became memorable, the film also featured an adorable dog which became an integral cog that set the John Wick wheel moving despite appearing only briefly. While the puppy was being trained on set to react to Reeves’ character, one of the scenes which involved the dog relieving its poop in the lawn, posed a huge problem for Chad Stahelski and his team.

Keanu Reeves in John Wick

The director along with his co-director David Leitch were confronted with the issue of creating dog poop on set as they had been instructed not to physically give laxatives to the dog to allow it to naturally excrete. This dilemma then led to the duo resorting to CGI effects to recreate the poop. Ironically, a film that did not rely on special effects for the high-level action sequences, ended up spending a ridiculously huge sum of money to the tune of $5000 for the scene involving a dog and its poop.

How John Wick Almost Proved Fatal For Keanu Reeves

The John Wick films starring Keanu Reeves and directed by Chad Stahelski have gained cult status for the thrilling action as well as their lead star’s presence and charisma on screen. But Stahelski, a former stuntman himself, is known to be a tough taskmaster when it comes to filming hardcore action sequences. In John Wick, the director put Keanu Reeves through the wringer during their training sessions for the film.

Keanu Reeves sustained serious injuries while doing action sequences in John Wick

Along with stunt coordinator and co-director David Leitch, Stahelski incorporated new techniques of martial arts namely gun fu which was meant to be a blend of gunplay and kung fu to ensure that the action scenes in John Wick would be unique and not seen as a replica of Reeves’ earlier film franchise The Matrix. The Speed star who gave it his all while learning the new techniques, faced the dire consequences of these difficult stunts by shattering the discs in his spinal chord which almost resulted in him being paralyzed. Reeves had to eventually undergo neck surgery to fix the issue.