JOHN WICK Director Chad Stahelski Has Made "Real Movement" For Oscar Stunt Category, Says It's "Going to Happen"
John Wick director Chad Stahelski has been very vocal about how crazy it is that there still isn’t a Stunt category at the Oscars. He previously said: "There's one for every other department but ours? That's a no-brainer to me… We're in every f**king trailer. Most movies are sold on what we do."
The filmmaker isn’t just talking about it, though, he’s actively trying to make the change, and in a recent interview with ComicBookMovie he said it’s "inevitable" for the Academy to add stunt awards. When talking about this, the director said:
"In truth, from what research I've done, is that the conversation hasn't happened. No one from the Academy has sat down at a big table with a contingent from the stunt world and sorted it out. I mean, we're not just talking about an American stunt team, we're talking about a global network of stunt performers, and international films from all over the world. That's a lot of people."
Stahelski added that he's now setting meetings with those at the Academy in hopes to do what’s needed to get done to get stunt work recognized at the annual awards ceremony:
"I think, for the first time, we've made real movement forward to making this happen. I think it's something that can happen as soon as, you know, the next Oscars, or at least the one after that, at the latest, the next three or four years. For the last three months, we've been talking to members of the Academy, getting this mechanisation, 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."
With Staheleski leading the charge, we might actually see a Stunt Oscar category implemented sometime within the next few years! The fact that it’s taken this long, though, is ridiculous and it makes absolutely no sense.