John Wick will always survive, as long as pop-ups and spin-offs keep getting created.
This month, fans can book a spot at Welcome to The Continental: The Hotel Bar Experience, a pop-up bar in New York City inspired by the beloved Keanu Reeves film franchise.
It will open on September 21, coinciding with the launch of The Continental: From the World of John Wick, a prequel series that airs on Peacock the next day for the first time. In the UAE, the show is available on Amazon Prime Video.
The venue is at 82 Beaver Street in the city's financial district, according to People, which is the hotel exterior used in the films.
Once guests are inside, the new series and the whole John Wick universe will be brought to life via the 1970s in what's described as an "immersive cocktail experience".
According to People, the venue aims to be the "most dangerously elite hotel" in the city.
Guests, who will pay for food and drink using gold coins like those featured in the show, are encouraged to dress for the occasion and era (although that's not mandatory). Interactive storylines and photo opportunities with characters, all with a "killer twist", will be on offer. Guests can also expect staff, from bellhops to bartenders, to be involved in performances.
Peacock recently released a trailer for the show, which is set in the 1970s and centres on The Continental, a chain of hotels around the world that serve as neutral ground for members of the underworld. Hotel workers spend their days trying to handle all the hitmen and murderers who stay.
The series also features Mel Gibson as Cormac, who assigns protagonist Winston (Colin Woodell) to recover a stolen object from the hotel, an object he says is "very important to a lot of dangerous people".
Earlier this year, John Wick: Chapter 4 was released and ties up loose ends in the franchise, which director Chad Stahelski hinted may be coming to an end.
The Welcome to the Continental experience is open from September 21-24, October 1 and October 4-8; from $15; 21 and above only. More information and tickers are information at feverup.com/m/139065
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'Young girls thinking of big ideas'
Words come easy for aspiring writer Afra Al Muhairb. The business side of books, on the other hand, is entirely foreign to the 16-year-old Emirati. So, she followed her father’s advice and enroled in the Abu Dhabi Education Council’s summer entrepreneurship course at Abu Dhabi University hoping to pick up a few new skills.
“Most of us have this dream of opening a business,” said Afra, referring to her peers are “young girls thinking of big ideas.”
In the three-week class, pupils are challenged to come up with a business and develop an operational and marketing plan to support their idea. But, the learning goes far beyond sales and branding, said teacher Sonia Elhaj.
“It’s not only about starting up a business, it’s all the meta skills that goes with it -- building self confidence, communication,” said Ms Elhaj. “It’s a way to coach them and to harness ideas and to allow them to be creative. They are really hungry to do this and be heard. They are so happy to be actually doing something, to be engaged in creating something new, not only sitting and listening and getting new information and new knowledge. Now they are applying that knowledge.”
Afra’s team decided to focus their business idea on a restaurant modelled after the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Each level would have a different international cuisine and all the meat would be halal. The pupils thought of this after discussing a common problem they face when travelling abroad.
“Sometimes we find the struggle of finding halal food, so we just eat fish and cheese, so it’s hard for us to spend 20 days with fish and cheese,” said Afra. “So we made this tower so every person who comes – from Africa, from America – they will find the right food to eat.”
rpennington@thenational.ae
