Chad Stahelski wants to 'push the color palette' in Ghost of Tsushima movie

Chad Stahelski's John Wick: Chapter 4 has just been released to near universal acclaim, but some are still eagerly awaiting his Ghost of Tsushima movie. The director talked about the video game movie in a recent interview and what his approach will be.

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Stahelski told Discussing Film how much he loved the show and how lucky he felt to be involved. He then talked about the story of protagonist Jin Sakai and how he could tie the colors of the film directly to Sakai's journey as an additional way to imbue the visuals with storytelling.

"Ghost of Tsushima is a really interesting story if you really dive into Jin Sakai's story and what the movie is really about," Stahelski said. “And you tie it to these amazing visuals. You can already see in the John Wick films that I love color and I love composition. To really try and not just live up to it but surpass what the game has done with its visuals is completely fascinating to me. So that's something we're researching and working on right now. Like, how can you push the color palette? How can you bring this world to life in a very realistic and grounded way?"

Developer Sucker Punch was praised for the visuals of Ghost of Tsushima when it released in July 2020 on PlayStation 4, and then again when it released its Director's Cut on PS5 a year later. The colors in particular were praised, as the open-world game had many environments full of lush greenery that bathed the scene in red, white, yellow, blue, or purple. It stood out against many open-world games, like its contemporary 2020 Assassin's Creed Valhalla, which had a much more subdued color scheme.

Players could also play Ghost of Tsushima in black and white thanks to its Kurosawa mode. This special mode reduced the audio channels, added film grain and, as mentioned before, turned everything black and white to evoke the films of famous Japanese director Akira Kurosawa.