Ghost of Tsushima Movie Director Explains How Lessons from Directing John Wick Will Improve Film

Ghost of Tsushima movie director Chad Stahelski has explained that his experience working on the John Wick franchise will make the upcoming game adaptation a joy to watch. He shared his thoughts during an interview with IGN. When asked what he learned from John Wick and how he’ll bring his knowledge to a film version of developer Sucker Punch Productions’ 2020 video game, Stahelski explained that technology might just play the biggest role.

“With every John Wick, we try to build the world a little bit bigger with the characters and set pieces and lighting,” Stahelski said. “Just what we’ve learned over the past couple years with DI, digital intermediate – the coloring at the end [of production] – and what you can do with new technology and with new Alexa cameras, that’s kind of allowed us, hopefully, to take cinematography to the level that Ghost deserves.”

Many players would agree that one of Ghost of Tsushima’s best qualities is its cinematic look and feel. It’s an action game, but the real draw lies in the beauty of the island players spend their time cutting through. That island also happens to be bursting with color, and thanks to his work on John Wick: Chapter 4, Stahelski has plenty of experience when it comes to creating vibrant visuals.

“You can see the purples and pinks, and we can push the color and highlights about as far as you can push in Chapter 4,” he continued. “So it was a big technological achievement to get the colors that we did in this and to get them to really stick, especially in the theaters you’re seeing them in.”

On the other side of Ghost of Tsushima’s artistic coin is perhaps its most unique feature: Kurosawa Mode. The mode essentially applies a black-and-white filter for players to enjoy the game as if it is a classic Akira Kurosawa film. While the Ghost of Tsushima movie probably won’t be in black and white, Stahelski hasn’t ruled out incorporating Kurosawa Mode in some way into the movie: “It’s definitely a conversation.”

It will be quite a while before the Ghost of Tsushima movie hits theaters, as there is no announced release date, but John Wick: Chapter 4 hits theaters today. It remains to be seen at this point if Chapter 5 will actually happen.