Naman Shrestha
In 1989, the John Woo directorial, ‘The Killer,’ was released. Decades later, he decided to remake the classic with a modern twist by co-writing and directing Peacock’s ‘The Killer.’ The action thriller movie acquaints us with a mysterious and deadly Parisian assassin named Zee, infamously known as the Queen of the Dead. Although morality is hardly anywhere near her compass, her humane and merciful side takes over her otherwise lethal facade when she is ordered to murder a blind young woman in a local nightclub.
Refusing to complete the assignment, Zee ends up inviting trouble for herself as her handler and mentor sends an army of hitmen in pursuit of her. During all the commotion, she joins forces with a French detective named Sey. As they fight off the attacks from her old colleagues behind Zee’s life, she is forced to confront her dark past. The female-centric film is led by the brilliant performance of Nathalie Emmanuel, with the support of other talented actors, including Omar Sy, Sam Worthington, Diana Silvers, Saïd Taghmaoui, and Hugo Diego Garcia. As the story unfolds in modern-day Paris, it is natural for the viewers to raise questions about the authenticity of the locations used to shoot the film.
Where Was The Killer Filmed?
‘The Killer’ was brought to life under the direction of John Woo by the cast and crew members in France, particularly in Paris and surrounding areas. After the production was stalled and postponed for several months due to the SAG-AFTRA strike, principal photography reportedly commenced in July 2023 and continued for the following few months.
Paris, France
Almost the entirety of ‘The Killer’ was lensed in and around the City of Light — Paris — the capital of France. In the establishing shots, you can spot various world-popular and iconic landmarks and attractions, such as the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Notre-Dame de Paris, the Panthéon, the Louvre, and the Palais Garnier. The city is home to numerous churches and cemeteries, and one of each was utilized for filming purposes. The cast and crew members took over the premises of a church in Paris and taped a series of high-octane action sequences involving Zee, the Queen of the Dead.
Another set of fast-paced fighting and shooting sequences was recorded in and around a cemetery. When asked about the stunt choreography and being involved in all the action sequences under the direction of John Woo, Nathalie Emmanuel explained Movie Fone how it was “like doing a dance, not just within the choreography, but with the camera itself and the way that John shoots it.” She revealed that even though it had to be specific and well-rehearsed, there was “space for some spontaneity and playfulness as well.”
She elaborated, “I feel like the process of learning choreography was so fulfilling and so wonderful, and the stunt team just really poured into me and really wanted to know how I felt about the way that Zee fights or how she kills or how she does her job. There were things that I brought to them, and they were really embracing of it, and John is also very involved in that too. Just having that pool of unbelievable talent and then the nurture involved, it was just wonderful. I honestly just felt proud of it and very proud of the things that I achieved, and it would just never have happened without that huge team of people.”
In the same interview, Omar Sy was asked to talk about his training and preparation for the action scenes in the film. He stated, “…So, we had few weeks before shooting and while we were shooting, we also had to do more training and to go into the precise choreography and all of that was very interesting. It was a lot of work, but very interesting because the process was different. This time, we had a lot of space to add something for our characters, that each move was a line, it’s a response to something with our characters. It was the first time for me to approach choreography and fight scenes like that. So, it was very interesting for me. It changed my way of seeing all those action moves.”
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