And the two of them, they didn't talk about it, but they'd basically bicker through their agents because neither one wanted to be the criminal who gets killed at the end. I thought that was real interesting.Blake Harris: I imagine that at 11 years old that was a pretty inspiring experience.Frank Dux: Yeah and then three years later, I saw him again. They were both pregnant at the same time. Originally he'd planned for it to take place in present day, but I just thought that if you've got all of these fighters coming from all of the world like they did in Bloodsportand basically he was just trying to do a different version of Bloodsportthat it would make things more interesting if, for example, this took place in the 1920s because then it becomes really difficult for all these fighters from different parts of the world to journey to this contest.Blake Harris: So Frank was originally hired to write the script for The Quest?Sheldon Lettich: Frank, and they actually put another writer on with Frank. So he started taking me to construction sites where I could get work. My very first fight in Tijuana, they were fighting six of us, and there were only five us there; we were waiting for another guy. I actually sent for and had custom uniforms made. It made its budget back just the first weekend on the west coast. This regular featureis written byBlake J. Harris, who you might know as the writer ofthe bookConsole Wars, soon to be a motion pictureproduced bySeth RogenandEvan Goldberg. Jean-Claude had a three picture deal with Menahem at Cannon and Leon was very impressed with Jean-Claude; we all thought this was a match made in heaven. But I didn't sleep with a reporter beforehand and I certainly didn't break into my instructor's house and steal a sword. He was actually going to come to that Bloodsport screening in North Hollywood [referenced in our conversation with Frank Dux]. Then Jean-Claude came in and worked with Michael on the fight scenes, re-working those. Early on, Johnson describes him as "a bright but undistinguished young man who, using cleverness and chutzpah, recreated himself as a super-hero a decade ago, painstakingly authenticating his new persona with military medals, trophies and newspaper clippings of questionable origins. They could shut me out from sequel rights. Then we started meeting on a regular basis over at the VA hospital in Westwood. And he was just a different person. And we did.Blake Harris: Did Mark and the other producers spark to the idea of Jean-Claude?Frank Dux: They wanted to use Michael Dudikoff at first. None of it.Blake Harris: InterestingFrank Dux: And Shoto Tanemura, he says he's never heard of a Dukes or a Tanaka? But then Ed Pressman, who had done Street Fighter, he wanted to do another movie with Jean-Claude. And that's one of the things that were attractive about Rambo so that's what we did with that script.Blake Harris: And what was it like working with Rambo himself?Sheldon Lettich: I was just so honored. The one thing that we did that made the film work so well is that we would do one "twinning shot" per scene. Using tech he got from Lex Luthor, Bloodsport teleported a rifle that fired Kryptonite needles into his hands and shot Superman with it. Paul, June, and Jason discuss the 1994 science fiction comedy Tammy and the T-Rex. Jean-Claude?Frank Dux: When we started? It's risk free with Nord's 30 day money-back guarantee! Kurt had played football at Prairie View College in the 60's. "Bloodsport" follows Frank Dux, an American martial artist serving in the military, who decides to leave the army to compete in a martial arts tournament in Hong Kong where fights to the death can occur. And so we climbed back over the wall and onto the set. 5 years ago. What really made Bloodsport special, though, was the work of Jean-Claude Van Damme. KUMITE! During my intelligence career, I have met with and been introduced to many covert operatives, whose existence has often been officially denied by the government agencies that these parties have been associated with. I never accused the military of doing it. I thought it was Pasadena, but everyone's told me it was Long Beach. We gave our enthusiastic thumbs up and the next thing I know they're in pre-production and off to Hong Kong. It was definitely a therapeutic experience for everyone involved with the play. At what point along the way were his fears diminished?Frank Dux: Well it was diminished when they were going to get rid of himJean-Claude doesn't realize how close he was to never having a careerand I took Mark off to the side and I said, "Look, I'm betting it all, Mark." "But I will say this," Lettich continued. I still had not yet met Jean-Claude at this time. The Origins of Gladiatorial Games. If they'd actually served. Did that piece directly lead to Bloodsport? I wasn't an actor, but I was a writer, so I got in touch with John and we hit it off. And I totally separated it. None of that is reported. DuBois' Bloodsport first appeared in Superman Vol 2 #4 by John Byrne back in 1987. Although there is no convenient way to verify each and every detail connected with this story, the editors have verified enough of the basic facts to feel confident in publishing it. Why not make a budd. Does that even look the same? We do it your way. But the only guy in the world who could kill Jean-Claude with his permission is Sylvester Stallone. I turned over the programs from the fights that we had in those days. He felt bad for him. Told that the tournament was a secret, he said: "We would know. And so how did you swivel from that experience into something in the film world?Sheldon Lettich: This will sound like it's coming completely out of left field, but the first time I actually got paid to write a script was a horror film that involved voodoo.Blake Harris: Yeah, I think that qualifies as "left field" status.Sheldon Lettich: [laughing] What happened was I had met [Blaxploitation star] Leon Isaac Kennedy, who wanted to option a script of mine. Qissi followed Van Damme to Los Angeles and found himself in a bit part in Bloodsport and eventually played the villain, Tong Po, in Kickboxer. And then there's another story where he met Menahem and did it another way in Monaco. It's hard to call the young Van Damme's performance "good" in any traditional sense of the word, but . And when I told about him the purpose of this How Did This Get Made seriesto investigate how movies got made, and the careers of those involvedhe was happy to clear up any misconceptions and provide additional insights into the making of Bloodsport, his two decades of collaboration with Jean-Claude Van Damme and what it takes to write a badass, blow-em-up action film. But, Dux's version of the event is that Frazier . In fact, I was born with my foot so pigeon-toed that it actually went backwards; my foot, it could go 180 degrees the other way. I was just at his house for New Year's Eve. He said, "Movies often come in cycles and there hasn't been a martial arts film in a while; I think that cycle is going to come back soon." Unlike so many of the testosterone-fueled films of the '80s, Bloodsport holds the rare distinction of being based on a true story. And I can cite the evidence.Blake Harris: Looking backand considering what eventually happened after the film came outis there anything you could have done differently?Frank Dux: You know, it's part of life. I wasn't going through anything like that myself, but it's therapeutic if you're able to recreate something that was an important part of your life and find a way to transmit it to other people. There were a number of people who really liked it. I blame the success of Jurassic Park for this movie. Or any agent's records? The truth. I mean, the guy announced his malice. What made you such an extraordinary fighter?Frank Dux: Well, you know what? So when I finally connected with Lettich, I worried that there might be some not-so-flattering words headed my way. Dux said the military ordered his record sabotaged to discredit him. And the one twinning shot would sell it and it worked surprisingly well.Blake Harris: The next movie you worked on with Jean-Claude was his directorial debut, The Quest [1996], but only in the capacity of script polishing. So we had no budget on that movie and we did a great job. And here comes Moore, and Moore drops him in under 30 seconds. We just became friends almost immediately. He had a karate background. And he showed up and said, "I see he didn't show up." He used to tell everybody he was a ninja; I think he still maintains he was a ninja and took his training from this guy named Tanaka. He knew enough buzzwords to make me think he's the real deal, he's probably been over there. Because we don't want our readers to be misinformed, Black Belt has a policy of strict verification of all facts pertaining to any article. He would punch the bricks, breaking them apart. Especially when it comes to the military. Bloodsport hospitalizing Superman was lifted directly from his first comic book appearance. Well I did, and I landed one right on his nose.Blake Harris: Really?Frank Dux: Yeah, and he was not happy about that. Two, actually. You allow other people just a little glimpse into what that experience was like and to feel it themselves. That's how Frank and I met.Blake Harris: Do you remember what your first meeting was like?Sheldon Lettich: We hit it off right away. But Vic explained it to me. And I said, "Okay, after dailies, I'll meet you up there." I assume you're referring to Jean-Claude. And Jean-Claude's got a really good sense of how a fight scene should be edited. I thought Bloodsport was going to ruin my career when it was first cut and put together. I didn't see it coming. And his wife and my wife became even closer friends. In fact, we all went out to celebrate. In Etruscan society, gladiatorial games were supposed to be part of the funerary rituals honoring the dead. So I have all these memories of falling down stairs and crawling on my knees. There had been a few other plays dealing with the military and Vietnam at the time, but they weren't written by those who had actually been there. I actually got to take my mother for the first time to see the film. It was just a way to release it. When I heard that name, it was like bells started ringing. What I had done was I had the fight, like in Bloodsport, but there was one little caveat difference: In between doing these fights, he was also doing stuff to help people on the street. The red one, the blue one, the black one. And I just want to end it right now." How blindsided were you when the piece came out?Frank Dux: Well, there was nothing I could do. Viking Samurai 104K subscribers Subscribe 546 16K views 1 year ago How did the Bloodsport Redux trailer go viral and Why this movie needs to get made! I had my then-fianc back in the United States get all the uniforms for them. We may receive a commission on purchases made from links. In fact we did the casting at my apartment. I think it was Jean-Claude finally convinced them to allow him to do it. I'd been writing screenplays and thinking about films, but what happened was an actor friend mine was reading Drama-Logue and saw an ad from this guy John Di Fusco looking for actors who were also Vietnam veterans. They passed on it. In 1993, Dux got beaten up by a guy in the first tournament, a guy by the name of "Nasty" Zane Frazier, who is known for knocking himself out when he and his opponent rolled out of the ring and hit the floor. KUMITE! I'm not gonna stoop to his level. So I said, "As long as you're going to have martial arts, why not get Frank?" I was too close to it. 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