Chad Stahelski Talks Producing 'Day Shift’ and Why He Loves Jamie Foxx’s Fight with the Elderly Vampire

 While you know Chad Stahelski’s name as the director of the John Wick movies, he just added a new title to his IMDb resume: producer. He got this for his work on director J.J. Perry’s vampire action movie, Day Shift, which is now streaming on Netflix. In the movie, Jamie Foxx plays a hard-working dad that works as a pool cleaner. But what his family doesn’t know is the pool cleaning job is a front for his real source of income—hunting and killing vampires. Dave Franco plays an employee at the vampire hunter union, which pays hunters for killing vampires and selling their fangs. When the two are teamed up against their wishes, they must make the best of a bad situation, which leads to a lot of funny moments where each actor gets to shine.

Shortly after seeing the movie I got to speak with Stahelski. During the interview, he talked about how he got involved in the project, why he loved the opening fight scene between Foxx and the elderly vampire, how they pulled off the awesome sequence, the challenge of making the movie in forty-two days, his relationship with J.J. Perry and his vision for the project, why he wanted to be part of the film, and casting Jamie Foxx. In addition, he also talks about what he’s most looking forward to audiences seeing in the film and what it was like attending his first San Diego Comic-Con.

Watch what he had to say in the player above, or you can read out conversation below.

COLLIDER: So, this was your first time at San Diego Comic-Con. I don't even know if it was your first Comic-Con. What was it like?

CHAD STAHELSKI: I think second, second ever, San Diego Comic-Con, and I went to one in New York once for press. That was it.

So, this was your first San Diego Comic-Con?

STAHELSKI: Full one, yeah, yeah. I went once as a spectator, 20 years ago.

It's a lot different. Looking back, what was it like for you as a first-timer?

STAHELSKI: Pretty crazy. It was cool. It was cool. It's always when you're doing press, and it's just a red carpet or if it's just an interview, it's one thing. But when you feel 10,000 people cheering and yelling and that's cool, man. I always like live shows. Back when I was a stunt performer we did a couple of them, they are always great.

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Jumping into why I get to talk to you. How did you actually get involved in Day Shift?

STAHELSKI: Funny enough, I think it was even before. You have to check with J.J. Perry, the director. But it was a little before we even started on John Wick 3: Parabellum, J.J. had found us. He was toying with the idea of directing. We had already been a quite established second unit guy. And again, there are probably some people in the sound industry that see myself or Dave Leitch or some of the Waughs, and some of the other guys that direct, and they go, "I'll be a director, too."

Then there's just guys that happen to be performing in stunts, who actually really want to direct. I think J.J. is one of those guys. Just has always had the inkling to try something, but was looking for just much like David Leitch and myself. You're looking for the right one that fits. Instead of being so eager to direct and take anything, you want the one that you think you could knock out of the park. So, J.J. had mentioned that he had found the script that had hints of potential in it. I vaguely remembered it and cut to literally almost three years later, he's like, "Look, I really want to do this now. I've decided where I want my life to go. I want to try directing. I think this is the one. Would you mind taking a look at it?" I'm like, "Okay. I vaguely remember. Let's check it out again." Reddick did notes. I'm like, "Okay, it's a hidden world." It's like a John Wick spin-off just with vampires. It's got a hidden world, but it's a little quirkier. I get it. It was fun.

I was like, "Okay, well, I get this." It has some problems with plots and some character stuff like how. I was like, "Come in. Give me the pitch." You'd think, because I've known J.J. for almost 30-something years, so we have a shorthand to say at least, like any good friend would. So, you could have the individual that comes in and talks to you like a friend, "Yo, bro. Come on. Do me a solid. All right. Let's do this."

J.J. came in quite the opposite. He came in like he was pitching a major studio. Came in with vision boards, came in with his lookbook, and goes, "Boom." He pitched it like he was pitching for his life, like details, characters, down to the music, down to what he wanted, all the different ways he could spin it. An hour later, I'm like, "Okay, stop. I'm in. What do we got to do? I'm in."

Then we had the talk. It's like, "Okay, if we do this, after what I have just heard, we're not going to try and just soft all this one in and just try to get it made. Are you good? Here, I'm going to throw the full weight of us. We're going to do this." Even then, I don't think he got it. "No, we're going to make it big. We're going to do this. I get it. This is worth it. We're good."

And that's how I got attached. And I said, "Look, I'm going to attach 87eleven. We're going to go big. We're going to go." And he's just like... I think after we had decided, I think it was only a couple of weeks. We had been doing some other dealings with some of the other studios, and we're like, "Okay, we're going to bring this to Lionsgate." That's where we had our first look deal. And then right off the bat, I already know somebody at Netflix who would be interested in this.

We went to two or three other studios all within two, three... literally, this all happened in 48 hours. We did our pitch rounds. We've given the right amount of time to the people that we were supposed to. But as soon as the clock ticked, literally to the minute, Netflix was on the phone going, "We're in. We want it done." I'm like, "Oh. Oh, okay, great." And we're in. And then within two more weeks, our casting list had been done. And Jamie Foxx had kept appearing on people, both we were interested in and J.J. was very favorable for, and people that Netflix liked to work with, and it just kept hitting. Every time we went down the list, it kept hitting you in the face, like Jamie Foxx, and he's talented. He can sing, he can dance, he's a stand-up comedian, but he can play real heartfelt roles. He's empathetic. He's physical. You're just like, "I would buy that guy being a dad. I would buy that guy being a fish out of water. I would buy that guy being an action star." You just kept... you couldn't get it out of your head once it was in.

And J.J. just was all on board. And actually, J.J. went, "No, I'm good. This is the guy." "Do you want to talk about it?" "No, this is it." And then we built the cast around Jamie. And obviously, David Franco is, you know? I don't know what to say other than he's hilarious. He really is. He's a good human. He's a hard worker and he's funny. Then you throw in Snoop Dog and the rest of the cast. I think it's pretty impressive. It's one of the fastest shows we've ever put together because one, you read it, you get it. It's fun. If I gave you the pitch, "It's John Wick with vampires. But it's a little lighter in tone, and you get to shoot a lot of vampires in the face." You're like, "Okay."

Then J.J. spun it enough to be this West Coast, very indigenous LA version of the story, which we can all relate to. And again, he came at it from such a strategic way of knowing how to put his money where his mouth is, both for comedy and for action. And it's something I didn't... John Wick has a heavier tone, so it was fun to go do something where we can just have a lot more fun.

What's funny is I was talking to J.J. yesterday, and I was telling him, it's easy to sell John Wick with vampires, but it's not John Wick with vampires. The thing is there's the union and the world, but everything else is not John Wick at all.