Matt Kennedy / Distributor: Global Road Entertainmen(NEW YORK) — When the first trailers for Hotel Artemis made their debut, the movie’s setting — a members-only hospital for criminals — felt familiar to fans of the John Wick series, which features The Continental, a hotel frequented only by assassins and other assorted ne’er do wells.
But the similarities end right about there, says writer-director Drew Pearce.
“I never saw that coming!” Pearce told ABC Radio about the John Wick comparisons, noting that some involved with that franchise had read his script without making the connection, either.
Set in 2028, Hotel Artemis follows Jodie Foster’s character, The Nurse, who uses her run-down facility to patch up criminals of various stripes. On the night the movie takes place, a volatile combination of characters turn the hospital into a powder keg and threaten to open an old wound she’s been trying to drown in drink for years.
“Honestly, here’s the thing,” Pearce says: “If people who love John Wick want to come and see Hotel Artemis, I really want them to come because … I adore John Wick. So yeah! Come to Artemis! It’s a different movie. There’s a bunch of different things in our movie that aren’t in John Wick movies, like Jodie Foster crying to a Neil Young song, but,” Pearce promises, “it will also be satisfying!”
Hotel Artemis, also starring Sterling K. Brown, Dave Bautista, Jeff Goldblum, Sofia Boutella, Jenny Slate, Brian Tyree Henry, Zachary Quinto and Charlie Day, is now in theaters.
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