{"id":51589,"date":"2025-09-08T21:49:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T21:49:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/51589\/"},"modified":"2025-09-08T21:49:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T21:49:07","slug":"derek-kolstad-turning-normal-guys-bob-odenkirk-keanu-reeves-into-action-heroes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/51589\/","title":{"rendered":"Derek Kolstad Turning \u2018Normal\u2019 Guys Bob Odenkirk & Keanu Reeves into action heroes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tEXCLUSIVE<\/strong>: After creating the John Wick<\/a> and Nobody<\/a> action franchises, screenwriter Derek Kolstad<\/a> is at it again. Premiering last night in the Midnight Madness section at TIFF as an acquisition title \u2013 I\u2019ll eat my hat if it doesn\u2019t get a distribution deal as Kolstad already ponders a sequel \u2013 comes Normal<\/a>. The star is Nobody protagonist and Better Call Saul star Bob Odenkirk<\/a>, this time as a temp sheriff in a Fargo-like snowy town that turns out to be where the Yakuza keeps its stash of ill-gotten cash and gold. The Ben Wheatley-directed tongue in cheek actioner also stars Henry Winkler and Lena Headey, and a lot of shit gets blown up. I\u2019m not sure the real Odenkirk could beat me up, but he\u2019s once again ideal as the reluctant action hero ruining the white snowy streets with splashes of red. Kolstad here reveals the care and feeding that goes into creating these unlikely action hero franchises, starting with John Wick, who carries the name of his grandfather.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: You\u2019ve done things different in creating two action franchises and you\u2019re at TIFF with what might be the third. Start with your decision to kill John Wick\u2019s puppy in the first film. I remember watching I Am Legend with my kids, and how upset they got when Will Smith\u2019s dog got killed. I reminded them that every human being on earth also bought the farm, but they were unmoved. You made it even worse by killing a puppy given him by his dead wife. Explain. <\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tKOLSTAD<\/strong>: The dog? It\u2019s funny because when I was a kid, the movie that really screwed me up was Old Yeller. Disney put out those white-bordered VHS tapes and it\u2019s a really sweet movie until Old Yeller gets put down. And then of course reading Where the Red Fern Grows in fifth grade in school. I beat everyone to the end and just sat there crying. There was something special about that ultimate innocence of a puppy. I spent so much time on the world building of John Wick and what\u2019s taking place in the background, and the texture. I thought that I knew I was doing something a little bit off kilter. My wife Sonia is the first line of defense, she reads the first draft of everything. I hear her in the other room, hitting page 11, 12, or whatever it was, and she just started going, Nope! Nope! I got the script back with a big X. It\u2019s the one thing we disagreed on and it turned out the way it did. But also even you look at Nobody, you could say it was all about a kitty cat bracelet, but it\u2019s not. It\u2019s like you could say it\u2019s about a puppy, but it\u2019s not. But then again, sometimes the puppy and the bracelet, it becomes the straw that breaks the camel\u2019s back.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: So now you\u2019ve evoked the image of a camel with a broken back. Were you pressured to change the dead puppy? \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tKOLSTAD<\/strong>: The first cut of the movie, certain powerful people with notes come back and say, first thing we got to do is get rid of the dog. And you\u2019re just like, wait, wait, wait, wait. To their credit, man, since day one, Chad [Stahelski] and Dave [Leitch] fought for that because they understood it. Keanu Reeves fought for it, he understood it, but ultimately it was a flash of negativity in the pan, and once they decided to go with it, everyone was behind it.<\/p>\n

\n\tI think it helped because this is the way I put it. I have 8-year-old twins. They\u2019re too young to see the movie. And about a year ago, I showed them one of the trailers, the general audience one, which is already too violent for them. \u2018Did they kill the dog, daddy?\u2019 I said, yes. And then, \u2018well, what is he doing about it?\u2019 And I said, \u2018killing them all.\u2019 And the response, in a very small voice was, \u2018good.\u2019 From the lips of a child.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: John Wick was the name of your grandfather. How many hundreds of people did your grandfather kill?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tKOLSTAD<\/strong>: He\u2019s nothing like that character. In fact, he never saw the movies. The last R-rated movie he ever saw, he took my grandma to see The Piano in the early nineties and was just like, yeah, I\u2019m done with R-rated movies. There\u2019s a lot of nudity there. I argued, there\u2019s no nudity in John Wick. And he\u2019s like, nah. But he was always so happy because I\u2019d wanted to be a screenwriter since the age of eight or nine, I loved books, loved movies and was like, I\u2019ll be that guy. And so for this to actually work out, man, we had a special connection there.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: When I watched Normal, I felt like I did with John Wick an Nobody. I am not a violent person, but I could watch it on a loop. I\u2019ve talked about this with Chad, that I cannot even describe why I feel that way. It\u2019s almost meditative, despite the carnage and body counts. Why are your creations so damn watchable?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tKOLSTAD<\/strong>: It\u2019s funny because half of the answer is there\u2019s a catharsis at play, right? I would also argue that in talking with Bob and talking to Keanu and a lot of the other guys I\u2019ve been working with, they recognize that a good fight sequence is a dance number.<\/p>\n

\n\tYou look at these two guys and these two franchises, and they already come in with a great deal of goodwill. They\u2019re good people, both in the public eye and on set. John Wick is not an anti-hero, he\u2019s a hero in who he was and who he is and who\u2019s going to be. I think part of the reason is you sit down, you relax, and you enjoy. They\u2019re not too long, they\u2019re not too short. They feel the right amount of length, and you\u2019re just like, that made me feel good. It\u2019s one of the reasons I go back and I watch Long Kiss Goodnight or Die Hard or Hunt for Red October or Predator over the years. I love Cabin in the Woods. We all have our 20 movies that when we travel and turn on the TV and there\u2019s that one movie on at two in the morning, you\u2019re like, well, shit, I have to watch the rest of it. That\u2019s kind the goal for me.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: I\u2019ve got my go-to films, and always had that relationship with the Equalizer trilogy and with the movie Payback, the one that Mel Gibson was in. All he wanted was the $70,000 he\u2019d been screwed out of?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tKOLSTAD<\/strong>: Dude, my favorite line in both that and Point Blank, I think they had the same line. It was, I\u2019ll pay you the $79,000 or whatever the number, and Mel goes, I don\u2019t want your money. I want my money. And he realized, oh, this guy\u2019s kind of insane. And it\u2019s just a joy.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: What were your touchstones in creating John Wick, Nobody and Normal? \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tKOLSTAD<\/strong>: I\u2019m a big fan of Spencer Tracy, and so I went into this idea for Normal because I love Bad Day at Black Rock. I wrote out this treatment when I couldn\u2019t sleep one night and Mark Provissiero, Bob\u2019s manager and the producer on this, he had asked me what I was working on. I pitched him this thing and he\u2019s like, that sounds awesome. Then we both got super busy and finally Bob calls me and said, what\u2019s this thing you mentioned? I pitched him and got, that sounds awesome. It was just lightning in a bottle because the way I work with Bob is, I bring in my love of genre and he brings in his love of comedy and character. I build out the story, the world, build the action, I populate it. But he comes in and he spends just as much time with everybody else in the script. We have a shorthand. But mainly it\u2019s a love letter to the stuff I loved as a kid.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: You killed something else lovable, not as bad as the puppy, but\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tKOLSTAD<\/strong>: And every time I see that scene, it kills me because it is so funny.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: We\u2019d seen Keanu in action films, but Odenkirk is an unlikely action hero. Then again, Liam Neeson was this serious actor known for Schindler\u2019s List and Jason Statham was this fast talking funny guy in Guy Ritchie movies and they\u2019ve made careers in action. \u00a0How did you know Bob would be good at this?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tKOLSTAD<\/strong>: Bob says it best, and it\u2019s that he came for the world of sketch comedy where the sketches are between two and a half to six minutes. And he said that\u2019s what a fight is. And he\u2019s right. A good fight scene is around that time and he\u2019s like, it begins this dance. Both he and Keanu especially, they loved to say\u2026pain is the wrong word, but they both put their bodies through the ringer. They\u2019ll both be the first to say, I can\u2019t really fight, but I can film fight. And they just get excited about it. The stunt crews love Bob and Keanu. They work hard, they love the craft, and they become friends with the crew. And when the crew wants to switch something up or Bob\u2019s got an idea to make the scene a little funnier, or Keanu\u2019s got an idea that is more of a character moment, it just becomes this perfectly oiled machine. But I also remember seeing Geena Davis in Long Kiss Goodnight and going, holy shit. And I think again, we said the same thing about comedians who go and do dramatic parts. They just see a new challenge that they haven\u2019t done and they just embrace it.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: If Normal gets a Toronto deal and becomes a hit, do you want to do more as happened with John Wick and Normal?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tKOLSTAD<\/strong>: That\u2019s the hope in everything I do. I think back to Star Wars when I was a little kid, you hear the name Jabba the Hut and you\u2019re like, what? And you expect to see him in Empire Strike back, and you don\u2019t, but there he is in the third film. You plant these seeds and hope for a creative harvest. The weight you put on yourself is to make sure that the first one works. Then, if there\u2019s only one, you\u2019re happy, and if the studio or the investors come back and say, let\u2019s do another, you have to make sure it\u2019s about we got to make sure that it\u2019s the character\u2019s evolution. You can trust me with the action and the world building and cool bad guys and all that kind of stuff. But if your character doesn\u2019t change, it\u2019s the end of the franchise, right?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE: After creating the John Wick and Nobody action franchises, screenwriter Derek Kolstad is at it again. Premiering…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":51590,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[263],"tags":[37924,37925,18,117,19,17,37926,327,9870,37927,13245],"class_list":{"0":"post-51589","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-bob-odenkirk","9":"tag-derek-kolstad","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-john-wick","15":"tag-movies","16":"tag-nobody","17":"tag-normal","18":"tag-toronto-film-festival"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}