In the early 2000s, Derek Kolstad was so obsessed with becoming a film scriptwriter that at the age of 26, after moving to Los Angeles from his native Wisconsin, he dedicated himself to writing scripts without interruption, until he accumulated about 60. Initially his achievements were minimal, and after some films starring Dolph Lungren, he sold a script titled Scorn to a small production company, with a protagonist whom he named after his grandfather, John Wick, without imagining that this character would become a symbol of popular culture.
Without a doubt, the participation of the then-downcast Keanu Reeves as an ex-murderer who kills criminals as if they were flies helped the first film, shot with an estimated budget of 20 million euros, gross more than 80 million globally, starting a franchise that already has four chapters, the last of which raised more than 400 million of that currency.
But also helping the success was the world Kolstad created, including the hotel where Wick takes refuge in the first film, The Continental, a neutral territory for feuding murder gangs, with an eccentric owner named Winston Scott played by Ian McShane. and his manager, a role that made the recently deceased Lance Reddick famous.
Lionsgate, the studio that acquired the first John Wick at the last minute and has known how to turn the franchise into a true money-making machine, has looked for ways to expand that universe, although as is often the case in the entertainment industry, after the second film Kolstad could no longer participate in the scripts. Thus, Dancer will hit theaters next year with Ana de Armas as a murderer named Rooney who seeks revenge, and in which Reeves will have a supporting role, but first we will be able to see on Amazon The Continental, a three-episode miniseries that in the United States United will premiere Peacock, the NBC platform, and in which the axis will be placed on Winston in his youth, now played by Colin Woodell (The Flight Attendant).
The proposal, which in the United States will take place on three consecutive Fridays with chapters that have the length of a feature film, two of which were directed by Albert Hughes, the same one who in the cinema was in charge of From Hell and The Book of Eli. With spectacular fights that have nothing to envy of John Wick 4, and a seemingly unlimited budget, its cast highlights the presence of Mel Gibson as Cormac, the hotel owner, who imposes his strict rules on all the assassins who work for him. .
The story, set in the seventies in an alternative reality, tells how Winston, an ambitious entrepreneur who tries to attract investors to build garage spaces, ends up finding the fortune he has always been looking for. He will achieve this through a series of events that put him on an unexpected path, in which his main objective will be to try to save the life of his brother Frankie (Bob Robson), who has stolen something that is very important to Cormac and therefore who has put a price on his head.
The main female figure in the cast is Mishel Prada, the American actress with Dominican and Puerto Rican roots who was one of the protagonists of Vida, a successful series set in the Latin world of Los Angeles in which she shared the bill with the rising Melissa Barrera.
