John Wick director Chad Stahelski has been pushing for a Best Stunts category to be added to the Oscars.
In a recent interview with ComicBookMovie.com, to mark the blu-Ray release of John Wick: Chapter 4, Stahelksi said that conversations about a stunt Oscar had taken place “in the last couple of months” between the Academy and a group of stunt coordinators.
“We’ve been meeting with members of the Academy and actually having these conversations, and, to be honest, it’s been nothing but incredibly positive, incredibly instructional,” Stahelski said. “I think, for the first time, we’ve made real movement forward to making this happen.”
Stahelski said that the stunt Oscar could be introduced as early as next year’s ceremony, or the year after that. “At the latest, the next three or four years,” he added.
“The question is, we haven’t had the real talks about how do you even determine what to award,” Stahleski said. “Like is it for best stunt? Is it best choreography? Best action sequence? Best stunt ensemble? Does the stunt coordinator get it? The guy doing the gag get it? The martial arts choreographer? The fight choreography? The stunt double? The second unit director? The editor? Who gets the award? All these are great questions that just need to be talked about by smart individuals on both sides of it, the stunt community and the Academy.”
Stahleski noted that, for John Wick, he had three fight choreographers. So determining who would receive the award is something that still needs to be discussed.
The director explained: “For the last three months, we’ve been talking to members of the Academy, getting this huge machine up and running to have these discussions and, again, to be open and fair about both sides.
“Both sides have been incredibly positive. There is no one that we’ve met so far that thinks antagonistically to this like everybody on both sides wants this to happen. They want stunts at the Oscars. It’s going to happen. It’s just how do we do it as fair and as thought out as possible.”
Elsewhere, the director of Netflix‘s Extraction 2 recently shared that he’d like to see Chris Hemsworth‘s protagonist face off against Keanu Reeves‘ John Wick in a crossover film.