Though best know for helming the “John Wick” franchise, filmmaker Chad Stahelski was a key player on the original “The Matrix” trilogy where he served as Keanu Reeves’ stunt double for the first two films.
Stahelski also co-founded action design company 87Eleven with David Leitch, the firm employed on projects to handle action scenes – such as the recent “Birds of Prey”.
Recently he returned to “The Matrix” franchise to assist director Lana Wachowski in developing the action sequences for the new fourth film and he talked this weekend with THR about his collaboration with Wachowski and her eye for action:
“You have somebody like Lana, who’s going, ‘We’re going to do this and this and this.’ She’s got some really great ideas. She knows the visual style. She knows what she’s trying to say in the sequence. She wants to collaborate and see how high you can take it in collaboration.
[Wachowski] comes with this set piece. She comes with, ‘This is the character. This is what’s happening. This is the conflict. This is where I need him to be emotionally or psychologically or whatever plot-wise at the end of this sequence. What do you got in your bag of tricks to make it absolutely crazy?’
She’s one of those great people that she’ll tell us something and we’ll say, ‘Okay, we’ve got this.’ Then she’s like, ‘Oh my God, that’s awesome. I didn’t think of that, but what if we took this and made it this?’. She always kind of one-ups you and that’s a challenge. She’s probably still the most challenging person, in a good way, that I’ve ever worked with… If you love the Matrix trilogy, you’re going to love what she’s doing because she’s brilliant and fun and understands what the fans want.”
Stahelski also briefly touched upon the fourth “John Wick,” saying there were two action sequences conceived for the third one they didn’t have room for and ended up holding it for the fourth. He’s also been using the lockdown period to really work out what will be done with that fourth film.
Filming on “The Matrix 4” is still on hold though is rumored to resume in July.
