Years before they were the directors of John Wick, and then separately behind further Wick movies, Atomic Blonde and Deadpool 2, David Leitch and Chad Stahelski were two of the most respected stuntmen-turned-stunt co-ordinators in the film business. And one of their most famous gigs in that capacity was the Matrix trilogy. Now, Lana Wachowski, the director of the latest Matrix film, has recruited them to help out with action design.
Speaking during a live Collider Connected interview, the pair – who jointly also own action design company 87Eleven, revealed that they had been working on concepts for sequences, a homecoming for them, since they'd been key parts of the Wachowskis' team back in the day.
"It’s more about the creative concept of some of the choreography and backing them up with stuff," said Stahelski, who spent some of the original Matrix shoots doubling for Keanu Reeves in some sequences. "What makes Lana so great is she directs her own action. We’ve had second unit directors on some of the Matrixes just because of the logistics involved. But of late, and especially on Matrix 4, she’s directing her own action. The second units for them are mostly establishing shots, the B-sides of the some of the compositions for some locations. But Lana, she does her own action. She weaves it into the main unit stuff, which is why their stuff looks so good."
But Wachowski and her production team still knew that the duo could help. "They were really cool. They asked us to help out with the choreography and some of the physical training for the guys," adds Stahelski. "I’m helping out a little bit for a sequence, I think Dave’s helping out for a sequence. Lana’s come back with a lot of love to have a pseudo-family reunion, so that’s been a lot of fun. It’s been good to see a lot of the crew members again. We just finished doing a sequence in San Francisco before the pandemic started."
The fourth Matrix, which sees Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss and Jada Pinkett Smith back among a host of new faces, was shooting until it had to shut down. It still has a 21 May release date on the books, but that might change depending on how long production is delayed. For more from Leitch and Stahelski, head to Collider's site.