The Killer’s Game director J.J. Perry wants to be Dave Bautista ‘so bad it makes my damn teeth hurt’

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 motion pictures and franchises which have come out this century. He’s labored within the greatest trendy film universes conceivable — 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 characteristic 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 Game, starring Dave Bautista and a legion of Perry’s buddies and collaborators from the motion world.

The film follows Joe Flood (Bautista), a extremely succesful hitman with an enormous crush on ballet dancer Maize (Sofia Boutella). Whereas their relationship continues to be budding, Joe learns he has a terminal sickness, and places out a success on himself to finish his struggling rapidly and hopefully get an insurance coverage payout for his new love. However shock! His physician gave him the incorrect prognosis, and he’s really completely wholesome. With a brand new resolve to dwell, Joe has to battle 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 pleasurable motion pictures of the autumn.

The narrative setup permits for many room for expression from Perry, each within the characters and the motion design. Zaror’s character, Botas, is a selected 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 almost unintelligible Scottish brothers (subtitles and all). There are bike fights, barroom brawls, tactical shootouts, intense martial arts motion, and every little thing in between. At its greatest, The Killer’s Game seems like an motion anthology collection, following the protagonist as he fights his manner by the style, with Joe and Maize’s romance offering a coronary heart on the middle of it all.

Polygon spoke with Perry about his strategy to the film’s distinctive premise, why wrestlers (and Bautista specifically) make such nice film stars, his inspirations for the wacky solid 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 venture begin for you?

J.J. Perry: Like 12 years in the past, I acquired a script referred to as The Killer’s Game, and so they have been searching for a stunt coordinator. Someway that went away. After which three years in the past, I acquired the script once more, and so they have 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 have been within the modifying room. He was like, “Dude, I want you to direct [The Killer’s Game].” And that’s how it all sort of got here to me.

Getting the film was an enormous win, however getting Dave Bautista to star in it was like profitable the lottery for me. All of it simply sort of fell collectively after that.

I think about a few of it is his star energy and what he brings to the display screen, but in addition, having somebody like him connected to the venture has to assist give it extra visibility.

I met Dave within the car parking zone of 87eleven [Action Design] once I was prepping John Wick 2 and we have been coaching Keanu [Reeves]. He got here to meet Chad [Stahelski], and I chased him out within the car parking zone and was like, “Dude, I’m a big fan.”

I’ve labored with a whole lot of professional wrestlers over time. As a stuntman, I labored with Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, only a host of them. However I at all times 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 setting out to make an motion film. I’m setting out 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 would like to get the love story and the characters proper on this film, and the comedy. I would like to hit that. Everybody’s going to anticipate the motion to be good. I’m probably not apprehensive 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 continually.

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 got this friend that I did Hotel Artemis with.”

In the event you ask an actress in Hollywood if they will 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 dance. Sofia, earlier than she grew to become an actress, she was a dancer, and she or he’s an incredible actress. Dave additionally introduced with him Terry Crews, which was tremendous cool. We had a tough time casting the Lovedahl position. I’d labored with Terry on Expendables 3. I like him, however Dave, he’s expensive buddies with him. He referred to as him, and growth, Terry Crews is on a aircraft.

I acquired on the telephone and referred to as all my buddies — Scott Adkins, Marko Zaror, Pom Klementieff, Daniel Bernhardt, Lucy Cork, Shaina West. In the event you’re going someplace to get right into a damn avenue battle, what do you do? You name your homeboys and your homegirls to come allow 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 the film enterprise, extra film stars have come from WWE than wherever else. Greater than soccer, greater than MMA. There’s a motive. They’re live-show performers. They’re appearing to the blokes within the nosebleeds. So it has to be large, and so they have to be in a position to retain the choreography. It’s a breeding floor for motion stars.

I feel that Dave, on the appearing stage, has actually surpassed any and all expectations for me. I do know him, and it’s unfair, as a result of he’s a terrific actor, he’s tremendous proficient, he’s tremendous clever, he’s tremendous sort, he’s beneficiant. I would like to be him so bad it makes my damn teeth damage. 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] referred to as Afterburn. We’re chopping it proper now.

You talked about Day Shift earlier, which has a really totally different strategy to motion than this one. It’s vampire-centric, you’ve acquired the contortionist gymnastics stuff happening. The Killer’s Game 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 in regards to 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 bike battle. We have been supposed to try this in a building web site. Are you aware why we shot it inside? As a result of whenever 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 bike enterprise in two days. I didn’t have a whole lot of time, so I wanted to give attention to my strengths. However that venue created a whole lot of alternatives for the bikes to do stuff that you simply won’t have seen earlier than. That’s your job, too, isn’t to regurgitate stuff you’ve seen. So once I’m directing motion motion pictures, I don’t watch motion motion pictures. I watch comedies and horror motion pictures.

One of many issues I loved most about The Killer’s Game is how the premise permits you to use a whole lot 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. After we determined I’m directing the film, I went out and acquired [screenwriter] James Coyne, who’s a buddy of mine, and we rewrote. We put within the Goyang character, we put within the Botas character, we put within the get together 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 individuals had taken their characters and put them in different motion pictures. So I put my personal 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 — once I was a younger man, I used to be competing in taekwondo rather a lot. There was a man in my fitness center that, when he placed on his Walkman, in case you have 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 possibly can stroll throughout him. I used to be like, I would like to try 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 have been saying, however it was enjoyable, and so they laughed once 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 get together 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 at all times going to be room in your motion pictures for Scott Adkins to play half of a brother duo with a brand new accent?

I like Scott. I’m going to solid him in every little thing. I’ll solid Marko and Daniel in every little thing. Whenever you’re going to go someplace and do one thing onerous, you’re going to deliver your mates. All of them might be their very own film stars. They’re all action-movie stars, however they may be film stars. I’ll at all times supply that to Scott, however hopefully I can supply him one thing larger subsequent time.

The film has a really comedian book-y narrative, despite the fact that the supply materials isn’t a comic book guide. You will have cut up panels, wipes, match cuts — there’s a whole lot of playfulness within the film. How did you strategy marrying the type to the narrative?

After Day Shift, I wished one thing that appeared a bit totally different, and I watched the outdated Thomas Crown Affair, and I watched some Man Ritchie. So a few of the cut up screens and a few of the transitions from scene to scene [were inspired by those]. I simply wished it to really feel totally different. We didn’t have a whole lot of time. It wasn’t an enormous price range. 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 typical motion film. There’s some dolly zooms, 360 dolly pictures, a whole lot of Trinity pictures the place we’re wrapping round. I wished to take a whole lot of liberties with the digital camera, however I additionally wished to take a whole lot of liberties with the edit and the pacing. I did Day Shift, and I’m tremendous happy with that film. However it was very scene to scene to scene. I wished to do one thing that was just a little extra stylized.

After we talked about Day Shift manner again, we talked about how a few of the film harkens again to an ’80s or ’90s type 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 once I acquired out of the Military within the ’90s, once I grew to become a stuntman. And again then, you couldn’t say “Let’s just fix it in post.” Any person had to determine how 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 had to be a intelligent filmmaker. And I acquired to work with these guys and actually concentrate 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, and so they love me, and I’ve realized a lot from them, however I feel they study from me, too. That blend for me has at all times been tremendous attention-grabbing.

I’m caught in the midst of Gen X, and I nonetheless pay attention to Mötley Crüe, however on the similar time, I work with all these tech-savvy younger bucks and younger ladies which can be wonderful. You noticed it in Day Shift with Dave [Franco] and Jamie [Foxx]’s characters, and it’s right here in The Killer’s Game. That’s one thing that I actually love. It’s part of my life that I actually love and chuckle at, and it’s one thing that I wished to deliver throughout to the viewers.

I used to be considering that’s one thing that the protagonists of The Killer’s Game and Day Shift have in widespread: They’re every hyper-proficient at a violent job, however they’re additionally sort of clueless of their life exterior of the job. Is {that a} character trait you’re attracted to in tales?

[Points at self.] It’s sort 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 automobiles and battle and shoot issues and fall off a constructing. We don’t actually have to develop up. You simply have to be cautious. You’re doing a bunch of children’ stuff. And I urge individuals: Don’t develop up. It’s manner overrated. Don’t do it. You’re not going to dig it. You’re going to need to return. My spouse and I, we’ve acquired a 12-year-old, and she or he’s going to develop up manner ahead of I’ll.

The Killer’s Game is in theaters now.