The ‘John Wick‘ franchise was a huge success, however, recently, its screenwriter Derek Kolstad, has revealed that ‘John Wick’ was going to have another title totally different from the current one, generic and very “simplistic“, and now the question arises, would it have been as successful if it had a different name?
To answer the previous question, we need to consider that the title of a film is inmensely important to the film’s commercial success, as it needs to represent the essence, the plot and the story of what the footage will be about, while also being captivating. In short, it must necessarily have a commercial attraction, easy to be interpreted and understood by the viewers.
The film of the iconic hitman, ‘John Wick’, was initially to be titled ‘Scorn‘, a title that would most likely go unnoticed by the majority of the public, according to several expert filmmakers. The saga starring the much-loved Keanu Reeves was created based on this title, but, actually, it is believed that it would have had the same level of success.
The writer, Kolstad, revealed in an interview with ‘ComicBook‘ that the film would be called ‘Scorn’ but confessed that it was Keanu Reeves himself who bestowed the title on his film, an event that saved the production millions of dollars and ensured the success of the entire franchise.
“The only reason we decided to name the film ‘John Wick’ was because Keanu kept referring to it as ‘John Wick’. So the marketing department said, ‘Hey, that’s the equivalent of like $4 or maybe $5 million in free publicity, so we might as well call it that.’ Now I can’t even imagine calling it Scorn.”
