How Eva Longoria saved ‘John Wick’ from extinction: “I was getting the cheques”
When a movie about a sad middle-aged man who’d lost his dog came out in 2014, nobody expected it to be the first instalment in a billion-dollar franchise. John Wick turned out to be more of a hit than anybody could have imagined, thanks to its stylish action sequences and deep, well-crafted world.
Since that first film blasted its way into cinemas, there have been three direct sequels, one spin-off, a TV series, a comic book, a video game, and countless other ways to interact with ‘Baba Yaga’. The series has helped bring the action genre into the 21st century and, perhaps, most importantly, introduced an entirely new generation to the joys of Keanu Reeves.
It’s easy to look back now and say that the franchise was always going to be a success, but nobody could have known that for sure when it was first being discussed. Derek Kolstad, the series creator, had struggled for years to get any of his work made and had originally considered Clint Eastwood for the role ahead of Reeves. Even when it looked like the movie was finally going to get made, it almost collapsed at the last second. That is, until an unlikely hero swooped in and saved the day.
Film lovers will know Eva Longoria from The Sentinel or Over Her Dead Body, as well as TV shows like Telenovela and Only Murders in the Building. As well as carving out a successful screen career, the pioneering Latina actor is also a savvy businessperson. She opened her own restaurant in 2008 and is part-owner of the women’s football team Angel City FC alongside Natalie Portman. She’s also lent financial backing to a number of movies, including the first outing of a certain Mr Wick.
Financial problems plagued John Wick throughout its production. Several cast and crew members took pay cuts in order to make it happen, with Reeves even putting his own money into the movie. Co-directors Chad Stahelski and David Reitch also made sweeping changes to the script, trying to find ways to shoot key scenes on a smaller budget. Even then, there still wasn’t enough in the bank to realistically make things work. That’s where Longoria stepped in.
“An agent, and he wasn’t even my agent, he called me and said, ‘You got money, you should put your money here’,” the star told Business Insider. “I didn’t even know how a movie was made”. Despite her inexperience, Longoria says she was drawn to John Wick because it was clearly a passion project. “Chad and David did their work,” she said, “They were undeniably passionate, and I knew they were going to make an undeniable product.”
Longoria was completely right. The film became a word-of-mouth hit, pulling in $86million at the box office on a budget of somewhere between $20m to 30m. That’s without factoring in the major cultural impact the movie had, as well as the aforementioned franchise it launched.
While she didn’t produce any of the other movies, Longoria still sees returns on her initial investment. One year at the Oscars, she realised she was sitting next to David Leitch. “We hadn’t spoken in ten years. I never saw them again, and I didn’t need to because I was getting the cheques,” she joked, “but it was such a serendipitous moment to sit with him and get the inside story of what happened.”
