As “The Good, The Bad & The Ugly” and “Hooper” kicked off the “John Wick” series, helmer Chad Stahelski’s Rise: The Film That Lit My Fuse resulted.

The Film That Lit My Fuse is a deadline video series that aims to counter industry uncertainty headlines by returning the conversation to the creative endeavors, formative influences and inspirations of some of today’s greatest filmmakers.

Each episode asks the same five questions. Today’s subject is Chad Stahelski, who grew up as a stuntman and martial artist to become a director of four. John Wick Films whose finale opens today via Lionsgate and are expected to wipe out the clocks of competitors at the weekend box office. Armed with a penchant for Greek mythology and history, Stahelski’s journey to the director’s chair is unusual. He graduated from stunt double to second-unit director of stunt-heavy films. He took it all together and teamed up with Keanu Reeves – whom he met while working as the star’s stunt double in the films. constantine And The Matrix Trilogy – about the understated action film John Wick. The simple story of an assassin, brought out of retirement when the dog abandoned him by his dead wife and brutally murdered in a home invasion, the series expanded into a mythological bonanza through the shadowy world of crime in which Wick flourished, to reveal it and then tried to flee.

Here he explains the influences that helped him get there.