Many thanks to @MadNewsMan for tweeting the link!
Doug Moe wrote a piece on Madison native Derek Kolstad who wrote the John Wick script. Of his encounter with Keanu Reeves at his (Reeves) home, Kolstad says:
“He was strangling an invisible man and jumping up and down on my script. I remember thinking, ‘I guess I’ve made it.’
The original title of the script was Scorn, but Keanu starting telling everyone back in April that he was working on John WIck and eventually the new name was adopted.
As it turns out John WIck is Derek Kolstad’s grandfather’s name. The elder Wick has said the following about the use of his name:
“I was tickled by Derek using my name for a movie, and the hit man character was frosting on the cake. Hey, this is fun. Let the good times roll.”
It sounds like Mr. Kolstad has a very cool grandpa! The entire article is here.