Chad Stahelski Wants to ‘Push the Color Palette’ in Ghost of Tsushima Movie

Chad Stahelski’s John Wick: Chapter 4 has only just released to almost universal acclaim, but some are still highly anticipating his Ghost of Tsushima movie. The director spoke about the video game film in a recent interview and what his approach is going to be.

Stahelski told Discussing Film how much he loved the series and how lucky he felt to be involved. He then spoke of protagonist Jin Sakai’s story and how he could tie the film’s colors directly to Sakai’s journey as one more way to infuse the visuals with narrative.

“Ghost of Tsushima is a really interesting story if you really dive into the tale of Jin Sakai and what the film is really about,” said Stahelski. “And you tie him to these amazing visuals. You can already tell from the John Wick films that I love color and I love composition. To really try and not only live up to but exceed what the game has done with its visuals is completely fascinating to me. So that’s something we’re currently researching and working on. Like, how can you push the color palette? How can you bring that world to life in a very realistic and grounded way?”

Developer Sucker Punch was lauded for Ghost of Tsushima‘s visuals when it was released in July 2020 on PlayStation 4 and then again when its Director’s Cut came out 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 violet. It stuck out when compared to many open-world games, like its 2020 contemporary Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, which had a significantly more muted color palette.

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