Is there something Keanu Reeves can’t do? According to the people behind the new action-horror-comedy Day Shift, the Matrix star played a role in getting the Netflix title off the ground, and he’s not in it either.
Day Shift stars Jamie Foxx as a vampire-hunter named Bud Jablonski who uses his day job as a pool cleaner in Los Angeles’s San Fernando Valley to case bloodthirsty homes. The film stars stunt coordinator-turned-filmmaker J.J. Produced by Chad Stahelski, director of the Perry and John Wick films (and a former stuntman himself).
“You have this average Joe, Bud Jablonski, who is trying to make a living for himself, makes ends meet,” Stahelski says. “The way he’s doing it is pretty extraordinary: by hunting vampires. This is your working class guy trying to keep his family together, trying to pay the bills, Instead of some super-glorious vampire hunter who is saving the world. This is a boy who just wants to get braces for his kid, he just wants to pay for his school, he just wants to fix his truck. We Everyone can relate to it.”
Perry, a veteran military director, has a long friendship and professional history with Stahelski, and served as the supervising stunt coordinator on 2017’s John Wick: Chapter 2.
“Chad Stahelski is one of the first people I met when I got out of the military,” says Day Shift Helmer. “We came together through the stunt business during the ’90s, and I helped him [on] John Wick 1 with John Wick 2. After John Wick 2, a lot of people started throwing scripts at me. Did it. They were like, ‘Oh, you have to direct, you’re leading.'”
Stahelski decided to join the project as a producer after a night out with Reeves and Perry in London, where the latter was working as a stunt coordinator at F9.
“We were all in London,” Stahelski recalls. “I think Keanu was doing a little pre-release press for John Wick 3 and we all met. We were having a little drink in this very cozy lounge-y type of environment. Keanu has been known for years It’s great to sit and talk when there’s no press or anything. And then, two Scotch in, you start to go, ‘Oh, that would be great,’ and you literally rock the party , and it becomes the whole creative session.”
At one point in the evening, Stahelski asked Perry if he was working on a project he could help build. As it happened, Perry Day was trying to get the shift off the ground and had already shot some trial action footage playing aborted vampires.
“I emailed him [footage] of the fight,” Perry says. “As she saw it on her way to Heathrow, she said, ‘Holy f—, how do you get those girls to do this? Oh my god, that’s ridiculous.’ By the time he landed at LAX, he was like, ‘We’re making this movie.'”
If Day Shift is well received, don’t be surprised to see Perry and Stahelski reunited for a sequel or two.
“Well, it’s the day shift,” Perry says. “You know we have to do the night shift. And then we have to do the graveyard shift, baby. Come on, bro!”
The cast of Day Shift also includes Dave Franco, Snoop Dogg and Carla Souza. The film is now available to watch on Netflix. Check out the trailer below.