DAY SHIFT: Jamie Foxx Reunites With Stunt Coordinator J.J. Perry For New Netflix Vampire Thriller
Industry stunt professional J.J. Perry has come a long way into a career of more than thirty years, from his young career in martial arts to military service, to becoming one of the foremost entertainers in film and television since the late eighties.
Among his nominal list of credits in stunts, fight choreography, stunt coordinating and supervision, he’s best known for Warrior (2011), Haywire (2012), John Wick (2015) & John Wick: Chapter Two (2017), Bloodshot (2020), Fate Of The Furious (2018) and next year’s long-delayed F9, just to name a few.
To boot, the stunt multi-hyphenate has also been working his way up the ladder to one day direct his own film. Previous reports have teased this little tidbit with unconfirmed details that have since remained off the radar, although it looks as if Perry’s latest milestone may just come yet, with the news of his forthcoming directorial debut, vampire thriller Day Shift.
Netflix made the announcement on Tuesday with Project Power star Jamie Foxx tapped to topline the film. Tyler Tice penned the script with current revisions by Shay Hatten (John Wick: Chapter 3-Parabellum, upcoming Army Of The Dead and John Wick: Chapter 4) which also reunites Foxx with Perry since the latter performed stunts on Quentin Tarantino’s late 2012 western, Django Unchained.
Foxx will star as a hard working blue collar dad who just wants to provide a good life for his quick-witted eight-year old daughter, but his mundane San Fernando Valley pool cleaning job is a front for his real source of income, hunting and killing vampires.
With Day Shift, Perry is finally on track to join today’s current cadre of stuntmen-turned-director coming out of the woodwork, like 87Eleven’s own Chad Stahelski and David Leitch (respectively known for the John Wick movies, Deadpool 2 and Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs And Shaw), and Extraction director Sam Hargrave.
Perry will be further accompanied by Stahelski who now joins to produce alongside Jason Spitz for 87Eleven Entertainment.
It was Tice whose Grand Prize win for the Slamdance Writing Competition put Day Shift on the radar for Impossible Dream Entertainment’s Shaun Redick (Get Out, BlackKklansman) and Yvette Yates Redick (Malicious). They attached Perry to direct, and brought Tice on board to help develop the screenplay further, before teaming up with Stahelski and 87Eleven Entertainment, and with Netflix.
The Redicks’ are also producing the film for Impossible Dream. Foxx will exec produce with Datari Turner and Peter Baxter.
“I’ve known and worked with JJ for a long time. His unique vision of Day Shift makes it such a great first directorial project for him.” says Stahelski.
Foxx is also on deck for a number of titles, including a hopeful return to the Marvel fray as Electro in the next Spider-Man film, and for a hopeful revival of the Spawn film franchise. The actor will next be seen in Disney/Pixar’s Soul, debuting on Disney+ beginning December 25.
*A previous version of this article mistakenly credited the role of stunt coordinator on Django Unchained to J.J. Perry. That credit goes to J.J. Dashnaw.
Native New Yorker. Been writing for a long time now, and I enjoy what I do. Be nice to me!