An Interview with Albert Hughes, Lead Director & Executive Producer of ‘The Continental: From the World of John Wick’

THE CONTINENTAL: FROM THE WORLD OF JOHN WICK -- Pictured: "The Continental: From the World of John Wick" Key Art -- (Photo by: Peacock)

Albert Hughes is a highly accomplished director that has worked across a multitude of genres, with a focus on action and adventure and currently, Albert serves as the Lead Director and as an Executive Producer of The Continental: From the World of John Wick on Peacock. And we here at NTG had the distinct honor of sitting down with Albert to discuss his work behind the camera for this ambitious show.
​
John Betancourt: How did you get to be involved as an EP and Director of this John Wick project?

Albert Hughes: Well, it came to me through the film producers, Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee. They wanted to do a Zoom and see if I'd be interested in it. And once they pitched me what it was about and how they were handling the schedule, and how they wanted it to be, filmmaker driven, I was like, “Okay, well, this sounds like fun. I've been doing too much serious stuff. And too many topical social commentary kind of projects.” And coming out of COVID and whatnot, I thought the audience wants to check out and have fun. I've had fun with those movies, along with the audience, like seeing all three of those films, that was before four came up. And maybe if I'm having fun, the audience will have fun too. And this kind of, it feels like a parallel universe, subculture of assassins, that is not quite letting in reality from the outside world. So that was a turn on.

John Betancourt: What is different about directing an action feature like this over anything else you’ve done in your career?

Albert Hughes: Well, more action, one, because the so-called action, I did in the past was more reality based. This is more kind of fantastical in camp and a good way, you know? And I think also, the most surprising thing was a freedom of not having to deal with reality, I didn't expect that this whole brain space would be empty and could take on other things now, which is having fun and being playful with characters, costumes, props, you know, cars, production design, dialogue, the whole gamut. Basically, it's like, it was wide open, you can throw anything wild at the John Wick world, and it will just eat it up at a rapid rate. So that was quite surprising because our first day of our very first day of shooting was the first Adjudicator scene where the guy is beating the other guy in the chair, her henchman. And that was purposely done because it was a scene, I was excited about, I was excited about that character, and both those characters. And also, her henchman was played by Kirk Ward, our showrunner and writer who is my partner in crime throughout the whole thing. So that was strange directing him, but it was also setting a tone for what the world will be. And when I saw that scene, on the first day I go, “Oh, this is gonna be a fun ride. Because I can't do this in other movies.” You know?

John Betancourt: What kind of prep work does a director do for a project this ambitious?

Albert Hughes: It's the same as I've done since I was 12 years old, although it's been honed, it's like, because I was trying, or told, I was going to be an artist by my mom, I’d draw everything when I was young. And I thought I was gonna be a comic book artist or an architect. So, as I got further into the professional side of things I would first draw the shots, and then shorthand describe them, and then transcribe that into a larger document. That's called a shot list. But it's not a typical shot list. It's talking to departments now, it's color coded. It's now shared with the departments real time live. And if the script is 120 pages, the shot list will be 185 pages. You know, I'm one of those guys that has a bad dreams about showing up without having my homework. So, I over prepared, I never realized that I over prepared until later in my career, because the crew and how you're making a film and prep, and production is built for dysfunction. It's built for dysfunctional directors, so they have everything ready. You know, and they go long hours, I don't go into overtime. I hate it. I think it's not needed. And I think it's very disrespectful to crews. So, if you prep, it's the same prep, I would have done for a movie, there's no difference if I did a TV show, I did one a few years ago called Good Lord Bird. It was exact same prep. One hour episode is the same prep as a two-hour movie. Just shorter. That's all.

John Betancourt: Now I hear a lot of passion in your voice when you talk about directing, what is it you love about directing?

Albert Hughes: Ooh, that's one… I've never in 32 years… I've never been asked that question. And it's actually a… it's a stunning question because I think it's more something to do with the, the expression of something and I don't know quite what to put my finger on it. I come from more of a visual side. My mother was a still, a water painter. My aunt is, my grandfather was, and I think I love putting together a series of images with sound and pictures, to convey a certain feeling and to see how you can move the audience one way or the other. It's something that Hitchcock was, was into. It's called “Pure Cinema.” And if you see an interview with him, he has a very, there's a very unique way he describes it and he actually used an example of himself. He shot himself as an old man, he said in a park, looking. That's picture one. Cuts to a woman holding a baby that's picture two. Cut back to the old man, he's smiling. That's picture three, right? One and three are the same shot.

He says, now take out the woman with the baby. And he smiles. It's all, “oh he's a kind old man.” Now let's take out that middle image and put in a woman sunbathing in a bikini. Now play man looks, woman in bikini, man smiles the exact same smile. Now you think he's a dirty old pervert. Okay? And that's, you know, it's called the… it's based on a Russian name. I forgot, like… the Kuleshov effect, I forgot what the name is exactly. But it's a series of images put together to convey a certain thought. And if you move one image and put another one in, how it conveys itself to the third image, and you know, following, and I thought that was the best description of why he gets off on filmmaking. You know, it's like, I love shooting, I have an editing system right behind me right now. I've been shooting since I was 12. I have cameras, and it's just something I can't describe. It's almost like someone who sews or makes a quilt that has some sense of accomplishing something you made, even though in my job, when I'm doing it professionally, I have to depend on hundreds of people.

John Betancourt: What does it mean to you to have this completed trilogy on display?

Albert Hughes: It's, it's a mixed feeling, because you know, it's like, after all that time, and we were finished a long time ago, now it's out in the world, like, you know, you have a come down, you're like, “Oh, God, like my body is finally catching up with me,” and saying you have to lay down and sleep longer. But I'm excited for everybody to see it. Because I think once they get the totality of everything. They'll understand one and two. And once you get three, you'll be all “Oh, okay, that's where all this was headed.” It doesn't. It's not traditional, which is what I love about it. It's not ten episodes, it's three feature length episodes, and the third one goes off the rails. It goes crazy. So, I'm interested. I'm interested to see what the reaction is to that. Because I think everyone knows you're building to something because obviously you see the relationship with Winston, older Winston, and older Charon, too, and that they run that hotel, so you know, some… some shit’s about to go down.

John Betancourt: What are you most proud of when it comes to this project?

Albert Hughes: I'm proud of the crew and the cast. Nothing that I did. I was just… I was so proud of what level they worked at, even these new newcomer actors who've done a couple projects, but just the kind of love and passion they had when they when they came and the Hungarian crew in particular, like just the ambition and fight and drive. I always say there's two types of people in this world or in this business. There are those who run away from fires. And there are those who run into fires. Well, that cast and that crew, that Hungarian crew in particular, they would smile running into the fire and I'm like, “Ohh, I've never seen this before.” So that's what I'm most proud of.

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

---