r/todayilearned • u/Milwambur • 1d ago
TIL that Eva Longaria spent 6 million dollars saving a film after her agent told her it was the right call. She now says its the best money she ever spent. That film? John Wick
https://variety.com/2024/film/news/eva-longoria-john-wick-checks-1236196504/2.7k
u/TanAllOvaJanAllOva 1d ago
It actually wasn’t her agent so I wonder what made him reach out to her:
An agent, and he wasn’t even my agent, he called me and said, ‘You got money, you should put your money here,’” she continued. “And I didn’t even know how a movie was made. I was like, ‘What do you mean gap financing?’ But something that I’ve learned, looking back, I love investing in people. You can tell me you’re opening a chicken farm, but if you’re fucking passionate about it and you’ve done the work and know the market, I mean, [directors Chad Stahelski and David Leitch] did their work. They put in their 10,000 hours as stunt guys and second unit directors; they had seen all the bad movies and knew how to make a good one. It was that. They were undeniably passionate and I knew they were going to make an undeniable product.”
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u/xkise 1d ago
It actually wasn’t her agent so I wonder what made him reach out to her:
Dude probably had a big list of numbers and just cold called them hopping to get 6 million lmao
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u/Financial_Ear2908 1d ago edited 1d ago
Yup I work in media and can guarantee this is exactly what he did 😂
Very likely he worked for them and needed to find an investor to keep cashing his paychecks.
Bro must've been a heck of a sales person to swing 6 mil. The "he was undeniably passionate" line has me cracking up
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u/SamSibbens 1d ago
What I wonder is how do they even get these people's numbers ?
If I had the best idea (and the means to turn it into reality) but needed 6 million dollars to do it, I have no idea how to get in touch with people who actually would gamble that money on my project
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u/Financial_Ear2908 1d ago edited 1d ago
You'd be surprised what a little bit of money can buy.
Even the post office sells databases of people's info
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u/topkeksimus_maximus 22h ago
Salesman here. Half of any outbound sales job (being an agent for producers, actors etc. is just a fancy sales job) is finding the right people's phone numbers. That's actually the easy bit since most of it is networking. The hard bit is the "hear me out" part.
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u/Optimal_Anything3777 1d ago
The "he was undeniably passionate" line has me cracking up
she clearly was talking about the directors....did you not read the quote?
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u/thatsmypeanut 23h ago
Why? She's talking about the directors there, and I don't doubt they were very passionate. She likely didn't sign a check for 6 million after the phone call, but rather got to meet them several times, and over that time realised that they were "undeniably passionate"
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u/Yabba_Dabba_Doofus 1d ago
They may be digitized in 2025, but:
A 'Rolodex', by any other name, is a cold call donation spree.
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u/FreneticPlatypus 1d ago
This may show what a gamble movies can be. You can have a great cast, director, script, etc but just the amount of money spent before you ever shoot a single scene can be obscene. We can all look at the film now and assume it was a no-brainer but until it all comes together, it's like having all the best ingredients on the counter - you can still fuck up the cookies.
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u/Nose-Nuggets 1d ago
Wasn't it the first movie a couple of stunt guys directed? That sounds like a major risk. I mean i get that these are some pretty great stunt guys, but at the time, that was some wild shit on paper.
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u/zoobrix 1d ago
Sure it was a risk but you can mitigate that risk by for instance hiring an experienced director of photography that might give more input than usual and ditto that for all the other departments. Sometimes a director might be more of a dictator with a singular vision, or the people under them might have a lot of input.
For the first John Wick the stunt guys turned directors probably had extra help so they could concentrate on bringing to life what they're best at, the stunts and fight scenes, and other people helped them with things they might have less experience with. Also if you've got years of experience being on a set if you pay attention you can pick up a lot, just watching others do it is how most directors get their first shot.
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u/Nose-Nuggets 1d ago
For the first John Wick the stunt guys turned directors probably had extra help so they could concentrate on bringing to life what they're best at
I think it has to do with them having so much experience on high budget sets. they were the stunt guys in The Matrix as i recall, which is how they got Keauna to sign on, they had history.
Other than a bunch of music videos and the worst Die Hard movie in the series, the DOP didn't have the kind of experience we might think. It was a pretty low budget film as i recall, especially going in (hence this article). Granted, an alarming roster of great directors started with music videos, but it's still a fuckin gamble.
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u/Plasibeau 1d ago
Hell, there was a time when a music video was art, and honestly, that's what made MTV the powerhouse it once was.
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u/vibraltu 23h ago
It's a risk, but a lot also hinges on if the script either isn't lame, or is stupid in just the right way...
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u/FlyingDiscsandJams 1d ago
They were stunt coordinators, not just stunt performers. Coordinators do a lot of the work that gets credited to the director in terms of both choreography & how to film the big action set pieces.
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u/LigerZeroSchneider 1d ago
and second unit directors. They were already knew what they were doing, this was just going to be the first time they executing their own vision instead of someone elses.
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u/Trentus86 1d ago
Even Keanu Reaves wasn't exactly a guaranteed bankable star. It was basically a pet project that they wanted to do which ended up blowing up and changing the way modern Hollywood action movies were expected to look like (aka not crap)
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u/FancySack 1d ago
For reference, the 3 movies he did before John Wick was 47 Ronin, Man of Tai Chi, and Extreme Pursuit.
None of those films would give studios confidence to invest heavily.
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u/ThaddeusJP 1d ago
Kungfury 2 is litterally DONE and it is stuck in legal hell.
Coyote V Acme might make it but it was done and gonna be written off
The Batgirl movie was made and it's gone forever
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u/monkeyman80 1d ago
I mean you can imagine the hesitation when you get the elevator pitch "Ok, we have a retired hit man who goes scorched earth after they kill his puppy."
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u/Smokes_LetsGo876 1d ago
I'm so glad the John Wick movies did so well. I distinctly remember when it first came out I was not interested at all. Just thought "another brainless action hero flick"
I got dragged along to see it with a bunch of friends, and goddamn did we have a good time
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u/lostinspaz 23h ago
even though it was still pretty much a brainless action flick.
“but in an artistic way”
:D
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u/SurealGod 1d ago
There's many shows or movies that have great casts and they get cancelled or flop tremendously so yeah, it really depends
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u/theDarkDescent 22h ago
Yep, it’s still a business and there are risks and unforeseen circumstances. A24 does a great job of knowing their audience and producing films on a budget that ensures profitability. Crap sells though, people love easily digestible garbage
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u/Now_Wait-4-Last_Year 1d ago
Another fun fact that might have also made a difference, apparently the film was meant to be called Scorn but because Keanu Reeves kept calling it John Wick in interviews, the name stuck.
Just as well too, can you spot the obvious problem with any film called Scorn?
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u/XtremeStumbler 1d ago
Not only that, but John Wick came out at a time when pure action movies that werent already associated with existing IP’s were starting to be seen as a dying breed. Its easy to look back now and seem like a no brainer, but no one at the time knew how big it was going to be. For a minute after release it was just thought of as a “surprisingly enjoyable, mindless, tight, action film” it a took a bit of settling in before it became the huge thing it is now.
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u/xavPa-64 1d ago
And that John Wick’s name? Albert Einstein
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u/BanjoTCat 1d ago
And everyone clapped.
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u/Dragon_yum 1d ago
It’s true, I was John Wick’s dog
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u/Muted-Scientist7900 1d ago
John Wick's dog? You re dead. John Wick's 2 dog and beyond? You're kinda neglected.
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u/CanAlwaysBeBetter 1d ago
And OP's title's name? Clickbait
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u/946789987649 21h ago
That's not what clickbait is, they told you the answer in the title.
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u/FaerieStories 1d ago
That film? Steve Buscemi.
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u/PussyFriedNachos 1d ago
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u/goobuddy 1d ago
Forget it, Donny, you’re out of your element!
He peed on the Dude's rug!
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u/meowzicalchairs 1d ago
Theon had it coming.
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u/GachaHell 1d ago
It was all downhill for Reek after killing John Wick's dog.
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u/WollyGog 1d ago
Well she is credited as an executive producer.
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u/Lone_Wanderer97 1d ago
If I dropped 6 millie, I'd have demanded to be killed by a fucking pencil in the movie.
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u/MoskiNX 1d ago
Damn dude, Tony Parker is such a fucking idiot. Generational bag fumble cheating on her lol
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u/GrapeSorry3996 1d ago
I just watched it for the first time on a plane maybe two hours ago and I was kicking myself for not watching it sooner.
Speaking of which they only have 1 and 4 - if I watch 4 and I’m going to be upset I didn’t watch 2 and 3
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u/BreezyBill 1d ago
Yes. It’s basically one continuous story. More or less.
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u/MrScotchyScotch 1d ago
Continuous in the sense that there is just continuous fighting for 4 films. The plot is "You killed my dog, so I killed your guys, so your guys try to kill me" stretched over 8 hours
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u/purplebuffalo55 1d ago
It’s just a pure action movie. Makes no attempt to be something it isn’t and I love it for that
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u/Last_Blacksmith2383 1d ago
Keanu reaves, good action scenes, dogs, pretty women. What’s not to love?
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u/RoboGandalf 1d ago
Yeah. Every movie is a continuation of the next.
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u/noyourenottheonlyone 1d ago
So John wick 2 is a continuation of John wick 3?
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u/Nose-Nuggets 1d ago
1 is the only truly good movie out of the bunch. Especially for its time. The rest are fun action movies, but for me they lost pretty much everything that made John Wick great.
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u/YellowFlaky6793 1d ago
I watched them all last weekend and agree. They get a little too convoluted as they go along and lose focus.
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u/pants_mcgee 1d ago
Actually not particularly, but you’ll be confused without watching at least #2.
/#3 fucks up the story badly to the point #4 addresses a few plot points and quickly moves on as an apology.
Of course I recommend watching them all.
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u/MegaMan3k 1d ago
John Wick 2 follows shortly after the first.
John Wick 3 is literally a continuation of John Wick 2. In media res. JW2+3 can basically be considered one long ass movie.
John Wick 4 has a time break but it's awesome.
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u/justin_memer 1d ago
They all get worse to the point you can see the bad guys waiting for Keanu to hit them.
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u/AuspiciousApple 1d ago
1 had a fairly grounded feel to it. The plot gets more absurd with each sequel and the action scenes worse. Magic bullet proof suits and super armored enemy goons are not what I liked the first movie for
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u/justin_memer 1d ago
You can't start off a movie (2) with him getting hit by two cars and him being ok. The last movie's fight scene on the stairs is just so god damn bad.
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u/flashmedallion 1d ago
That and the removal from reality. John Wick 1 is taking place in the underworld, it's plausible. It was exciting because you could actually imagine a real guy being this good and getting away with it.
John Wick 4 has full civilian traffic doing laps of the Champs Elysees roundabout studiously ignoring the gunfight taking place on the road. It's hard to care about a magic international assassins guild when even the general public within the world building don't even care
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u/wolfrrun 1d ago
And the bad guys never learn! John Wick gets hit by so many cars, its almost impossible for him to cross a street without being hit by another car.
Why don’t the bad guys fight him near a highway and let the cars take him out.
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u/justin_memer 1d ago
The first movie was at least somewhat realistic. Tell me no one is going to notice two guys shooting at each other in a crowded place? Silencers be damned.
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u/NucularRobit 1d ago
My favorite was in 3(?) When the motorcyclists with guns were getting into range of his swords.
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u/justin_memer 1d ago
It's like when super powerful enemies in movies throw their victim across the room rather just literally ripping their head off.
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u/ShatteredDreams452 1d ago
I remember in the movie commentary they had no idea why she was a producer, when she saved the whole movie/franchise.
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u/GeekyGamer2022 1d ago
George Harrison of The Beatles financed Monty Python's Life of Brian.
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u/Sarke1 1d ago
"Because he wanted to see the movie"
I'm very grateful because it's my all-time favorite movie.
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u/SwordfishNo9878 1d ago
Wow - that’s sick, I had no idea John wick was in such a precarious situation
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u/Medical_Bee_2296 1d ago
I wonder at what point in the process it happened, because I sort of assume with Keanu involved financing would have been straightforward
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u/Tiny-Spray-1820 1d ago
Funny that no one thought of naming that agent that placed his reputation on those 2 directors, and asking eva to fork out 6mill. That takes alot of guts
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u/Rybred555 1d ago
Seems like money that Keanu could have come up with himself or was he already heavily invested in it?
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u/alpineflamingo2 23h ago
Oh so this is what a producer is? Someone who literally invests in a movie?
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u/yuckyucky 23h ago
An agent, and he wasn’t even my agent, he called me and said, ‘You got money, you should put your money here,’” she continued. “And I didn’t even know how a movie was made. I was like, ‘What do you mean gap financing?’
this scenario often goes wrong but people don't talk about those instances.
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u/StrangeCharmVote 1d ago
1 was pretty good. I'm not sure how others feel, but personally i didn't like the next two John Wick movies.
I mean don't get me wrong, the action was good, but the story was kind of shit.
Haven't even seen 4 yet, but i'm expecting about the same.
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u/DaltonMalton 1d ago
Apparently she got back 12 million, so 6 million profit. She wasn't involved with the sequels.