It’s not a lot of a stretch to say that legendary stunt performer and motion director J.J. Perry helped form many of the important motion films and franchises which have come out this century. He’s labored within the largest fashionable film universes possible — Marvel, DC, Avatar, Quick and Livid, John Wick. He designed the motion on smaller beloved style initiatives like Warrior and Undisputed II: Final Man Standing, and even supplied sturdy motion beats in comedies like Spy and Homicide Thriller 2.
Perry lastly acquired his likelihood at directing a function in 2022: the breezy throwback vampire action-comedy Day Shift, starring Jamie Foxx. Two years later, he’s again together with his sophomore effort: the pleasant motion rom-com The Killer’s Recreation, starring Dave Bautista and a legion of Perry’s associates and collaborators from the motion world.
The film follows Joe Flood (Bautista), a extremely succesful hitman with a giant crush on ballet dancer Maize (Sofia Boutella). Whereas their relationship remains to be budding, Joe learns he has a terminal sickness, and places out successful on himself to finish his struggling shortly and hopefully get an insurance coverage payout for his new love. However shock! His physician gave him the fallacious analysis, and he’s truly completely wholesome. With a brand new resolve to dwell, Joe has to struggle off a swarm of lethal assassins and maintain onto his imaginative and prescient of his future.
Becoming a member of Bautista and Boutella are Ben Kingsley as Bautista’s handler Zvi, Pom Klementieff as a rival handler, and Terry Crews, Scott Adkins, Marko Zaror, Lee Hoon, Shaina West, Lucy Cork, and WWE wrestler Drew McIntyre as a few of the assassins. For motion followers, that record is a who’s who of people that kick ass. Mix that with Perry’s distinctive eye for motion design, and you’ve got one of the crucial satisfying films of the autumn.
The narrative setup permits for plenty of room for expression from Perry, each within the characters and the motion design. Zaror’s character, Botas, is a specific standout, a flamenco dancer who fights with spurs on his boots and headphones in his ears. So are Adkins and McIntyre, who play a pair of practically unintelligible Scottish brothers (subtitles and all). There are motorbike fights, barroom brawls, tactical shootouts, intense martial arts motion, and every thing in between. At its greatest, The Killer’s Recreation seems like an motion anthology collection, following the protagonist as he fights his method by the style, with Joe and Maize’s romance offering a coronary heart on the middle of all of it.
Polygon spoke with Perry about his method to the film’s distinctive premise, why wrestlers (and Bautista specifically) make such nice film stars, his inspirations for the wacky forged of characters, and his love for matching old-school aesthetics with new-school know-how.
This interview has been edited for concision and readability.
Polygon: The place did this challenge begin for you?
J.J. Perry: Like 12 years in the past, I acquired a script known as The Killer’s Recreation, they usually had been searching for a stunt coordinator. Someway that went away. After which three years in the past, I acquired the script once more, they usually had been searching for a second unit director. I used to be ending up my first film, Day Shift, and I invited [producer] Andrew Lazar to see my director’s lower whereas we had been within the modifying room. He was like, “Dude, I would like you to direct [The Killer’s Game].” And that’s the way it all type of got here to me.
Photograph: Csaba Aknay/Lionsgate
Getting the film was a giant win, however getting Dave Bautista to star in it was like profitable the lottery for me. All of it simply type of fell collectively after that.
I think about a few of it’s his star energy and what he brings to the display screen, but in addition, having somebody like him hooked up to the challenge has to assist in giving it extra visibility.
I met Dave within the parking zone of 87eleven [Action Design] after I was prepping John Wick 2 and we had been coaching Keanu [Reeves]. He got here to fulfill Chad [Stahelski], and I chased him out within the parking zone and was like, “Dude, I’m a giant fan.”
I’ve labored with a variety of professional wrestlers over time. As a stuntman, I labored with Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, only a host of them. However I all the time felt Dave was particular. He has one thing else. When he got here aboard, we had a chat, and I feel I gained him over by telling him that I’m not getting down to make an motion film. I’m getting down to make a love story.
For me, coming from the motion world, I wasn’t that involved with the motion. I can shut my eyes and throw the ball and hit it with motion. It’s my neighborhood. I do know the place I’m going. I must get the love story and the characters proper on this film, and the comedy. I must hit that. Everybody’s going to anticipate the motion to be good. I’m not likely frightened about that half, as a result of I do know it just like the again of my hand, and I’ve acquired an incredible motion staff, and all we do is produce stunt biz consistently.
However getting the story proper is, I feel, what acquired Dave, and Dave introduced Sofia [Boutella]. I used to be scared shitless of the Maize character. I used to be like OK, who am I gonna get, a badass actress that may dance, that has chemistry with Dave? And he mentioned, “Oh, I acquired this good friend that I did Resort Artemis with.”
Should you ask an actress in Hollywood if they’ll dance, they’ll all say, “Yeah, I can dance.” However I don’t imply faucet dance within the fourth grade. I’m speaking about actually being about to bounce. Sofia, earlier than she turned an actress, she was a dancer, and he or she’s an incredible actress. Dave additionally introduced with him Terry Crews, which was tremendous cool. We had a tough time casting the Lovedahl function. I’d labored with Terry on Expendables 3. I like him, however Dave, he’s pricey associates with him. He known as him, and increase, Terry Crews is on a aircraft.
I acquired on the cellphone and known as all my associates — Scott Adkins, Marko Zaror, Pom Klementieff, Daniel Bernhardt, Lucy Cork, Shaina West. Should you’re going someplace to get right into a rattling road struggle, what do you do? You name your homeboys and your homegirls to come back enable you to. Whenever you stack your deck filled with aces, all you’re holding is aces.
What’s it about working with wrestlers in motion roles that you simply like, and the way has Dave Bautista distinguished himself there to you?
If you understand the film enterprise, extra film stars have come from WWE than wherever else. Greater than soccer, greater than MMA. There’s a cause. They’re live-show performers. They’re performing to the blokes within the nosebleeds. So it needs to be huge, they usually have to have the ability to retain the choreography. It’s a breeding floor for motion stars.
I feel that Dave, on the performing stage, has actually surpassed any and all expectations for me. I do know him, and it’s unfair, as a result of he’s an amazing actor, he’s tremendous gifted, he’s tremendous clever, he’s tremendous sort, he’s beneficiant. I wish to be him so dangerous it makes my rattling tooth harm. For me, it was a profession excessive to get to do that with him. I simply completed one other one with him too, [a sci-fi comedy] known as Afterburn. We’re chopping it proper now.
You talked about Day Shift earlier, which has a really totally different method to motion than this one. It’s vampire-centric, you’ve acquired the contortionist gymnastics stuff occurring. The Killer’s Recreation is a distinct playground. What was most fun to you about that as an motion director?
As a result of I direct a lot motion as a second unit director, it’s concerning the characters. How do I make the characters totally different, and create issues for my protagonist, and present how he solves them? And it’s additionally the set-pieces. Like, the motorbike struggle. We had been supposed to do this in a development website. Have you learnt why we shot it inside? As a result of if you movie in Budapest in July, you solely have 4 nighttimes. So I didn’t have the time I wanted to shoot for 10 hours straight.
We shot all of that motorbike enterprise in two days. I didn’t have a variety of time, so I wanted to concentrate on my strengths. However that venue created a variety of alternatives for the bikes to do stuff that you simply may not have seen earlier than. That’s your job, too, is to not regurgitate stuff you’ve seen. So after I’m directing motion films, I don’t watch motion films. I watch comedies and horror films.
One of many issues I loved most about The Killer’s Recreation is how the premise lets you use a variety of totally different motion instruments. You get to cycle by motion subgenres all through the film. Whenever you learn the script, did that stand out to you, or did that come naturally within the course of?
The film that I learn 10 or 12 years in the past and the one I learn three years in the past are fairly a bit totally different. Once we determined I’m directing the film, I went out and acquired [screenwriter] James Coyne, who’s a good friend of mine, and we rewrote. We put within the Goyang character, we put within the Botas character, we put within the occasion ladies, we put within the unintelligible Scottish guys.
We took some characters out, as a result of that script had been round so lengthy, you’d see folks had taken their characters and put them in different films. So I put my very own DNA in it. We wrote these issues with Scott Adkins in thoughts, with Marko Zaror in thoughts, with Lucy Cork and Shaina West in thoughts.
With Botas — after I was a younger man, I used to be competing in taekwondo lots. There was a man in my fitness center that, when he placed on his Walkman, when you had been sparring with him, he would beat the pants off of you, as a result of he was so into the heavy steel. However when he had the Walkman off, you might stroll throughout him. I used to be like, I would like to do this. Marko, he’s a particular character. We virtually misplaced that character, too. We didn’t have some huge cash.
[With the Mackenzie brothers], I labored in Scotland on F9. We locked up Edinburgh, and I couldn’t perceive a phrase of what my crew had been saying, but it surely was enjoyable, they usually laughed after I talked. We had a good time. Each different phrase was the C phrase. I used to be like. Whoa, you guys can simply say that? After which the occasion ladies… I spent most of my youth researching these ladies.
With the Mackenzie brothers, there’s a little bit of a commonality between Day Shift and this film. Is there all the time going to be room in your films for Scott Adkins to play half of a brother duo with a brand new accent?
I like Scott. I’m going to forged him in every thing. I’ll forged Marko and Daniel in every thing. Whenever you’re going to go someplace and do one thing laborious, you’re going to deliver your folks. All of them may very well be their very own film stars. They’re all action-movie stars, however they may very well be film stars. I’ll all the time provide that to Scott, however hopefully I can provide him one thing greater subsequent time.
The film has a really comedian book-y narrative, though the supply materials isn’t a comic book ebook. You might have break up panels, wipes, match cuts — there’s a variety of playfulness within the film. How did you method marrying the fashion to the narrative?
After Day Shift, I needed one thing that regarded a bit totally different, and I watched the outdated Thomas Crown Affair, and I watched some Man Ritchie. So a few of the break up screens and a few of the transitions from scene to scene [were inspired by those]. I simply needed it to really feel totally different. We didn’t have a variety of time. It wasn’t a giant funds. We shot it in 42 days. It was what it was, however we made a meal of it.
I didn’t need it to look like a regular motion film. There’s some dolly zooms, 360 dolly pictures, a variety of Trinity pictures the place we’re wrapping round. I needed to take a variety of liberties with the digicam, however I additionally needed to take a variety of liberties with the edit and the pacing. I did Day Shift, and I’m tremendous happy with that film. But it surely was very scene to scene to scene. I needed to do one thing that was a bit extra stylized.
Once we talked about Day Shift method again, we talked about how a few of the film harkens again to an ’80s or ’90s fashion of motion film. You want to combine older aesthetics with new-school tech. What appeals to you about that?
I realized how to do that job after I acquired out of the Military within the ’90s, after I turned a stuntman. And again then, you couldn’t say “Let’s simply repair it in publish.” Anyone had to determine the right way to do it — you couldn’t simply lean on visible results. There wasn’t CGI, there was no YouTube for a tutorial, there was none of that. So that you needed to be a intelligent filmmaker. And I started working with these guys and actually listen as a stunt coordinator and second unit director.
These stuntmen and ladies are next-level. Parkour champion, world drifting champion, UFC fighter, simply next-level. However they’re all younger women and men that I don’t fucking perceive a phrase of what they’re saying. And I like them, they usually love me, and I’ve realized a lot from them, however I feel they be taught from me, too. That blend for me has all the time been tremendous fascinating.
Photograph: Csaba Aknay/Lionsgate
I’m caught in the course of Gen X, and I nonetheless hearken to Mötley Crüe, however on the identical time, I work with all these tech-savvy younger bucks and younger girls which can be superb. You noticed it in Day Shift with Dave [Franco] and Jamie [Foxx]’s characters, and it’s right here in The Killer’s Recreation. That’s one thing that I actually love. It’s part of my life that I actually love and giggle at, and it’s one thing that I needed to deliver throughout to the viewers.
I used to be pondering that’s one thing that the protagonists of The Killer’s Recreation and Day Shift have in frequent: They’re every hyper-proficient at a violent job, however they’re additionally type of clueless of their life outdoors of the job. Is {that a} character trait you’re interested in in tales?
[Points at self.] It’s type of my story. I’m 57, however I’m a 15-year-old trapped in a 57-year-old’s physique. I’ve been in a enterprise the place we crash vehicles and struggle and shoot issues and fall off a constructing. We don’t actually should develop up. You simply should watch out. You’re doing a bunch of children’ stuff. And I urge folks: Don’t develop up. It’s method overrated. Don’t do it. You’re not going to dig it. You’re going to wish to return. My spouse and I, we’ve acquired a 12-year-old, and he or she’s going to develop up method earlier than I’ll.
The Killer’s Recreation is in theaters now.
