how did this get made bloodsporthow did this get made bloodsport

Bloodsport: Directed by Newt Arnold. "The fact that Frank hasn't been involved with any movie since 1994 says something doesn't it? California, Oregon and Washington. 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. He's also said it under oath by the way and identified me. When he saw he had to walk [across] an I-beam to me, and I threw a jumping spin heel kick on the ledge of the building there, he goes: Holy shit." 2. level 2. Let's meet face to face. 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. And what really grabbed Sheldon's attention was the fights.Blake Harris: So what happened with the script? You allow other people just a little glimpse into what that experience was like and to feel it themselves. Synopsis:U.S. Army Captain Frank Dux (Jean-Claude Van Damme), who had been trained as a boy by the legendary Ninjutsu master Senzo Tanaka, decides to honor his mentor by taking the place of Tanaka's dead son in an illegal, no-holds-barred martial arts tournament called the "Kumite. Pushed too farand generally all three words would appear on screenthat was big in the 80s. Menahem had also seen the little 16mm movie [Firefight] I directed and was going to give me my first directing deal.Blake Harris: For you to direct a Lone Wolf McQuade sequel starring Leon Isaac Kennedy and Chuck Norris?Sheldon Lettich: Yes, except that Chuck didn't want to do it. And Menahem was dead set against it.Blake Harris: Why?Sheldon Lettich: [Laughing at the memory] His word for Jean-Claude was "poison." I literally wrote a good majority of that script with Sheldon, but I never got credit for it. I showed him pictures of this ancient fortress on a hilltop that the Russians had converted, so that became the basis for it. 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. What I said to them [the LA Times] was that the only way you could get a hold of my records was to go to Federal Intelligence Court. And I just want to end it right now." I should also back up and say that I was really poor growing up. And for three months prior to filming, Jean-Claude would come to my studio after I finished classes, he would show up at like 9 o'clock and I would train him in movie fighting.Blake Harris: How skilled was he? We're 60 stories in the air, I'm not kidding you. Not go into the past. And he did. He had a chance to read them. Bloodsport 4: The Dark Kumite. Another thing was that had I co-directed The Quest with Jean-Claude, it might have contributed to a mistaken notion that Jean-Claude co-directed Lionheart and Double Impact with me. In 1987's Superman #4, by John Byrne and Karl Kesel, Superman tried to stop Bloodsport's rampage through Metropolis. How involved were you with that reshaping?Frank Dux: Every day, when Sheldon was writing the script, I would be in the office with him and Mark DiSalle, the producer. And I think it's because he felt very insecure. And I said, "If you're gonna go, just don't pull me with you." "Well, can I show you what I've learned since you taught me?" It was definitely a therapeutic experience for everyone involved with the play. I said, "Real Kumite fighters, we fight here. Because my idea for Rambo III was: well, there's only one place Rambo could goAfghanistan. With Bloodsport and Deadshot picking up each other weapons in battle. And I had read an article, in this magazine called M, about the French Foreign Legion. Okay, try him out. That was the real Sheldon Lettich. So he met me on the roof of the Victoria hotel. He knew enough buzzwords to make me think he's the real deal, he's probably been over there. And then Moore took me and Grant and started showing us some stuff. I'm not gonna stoop to his level. Menahem still thought it was a piece of s***.Blake Harris: How come?Sheldon Lettich: Well, I think this might answer your question. And regardless of what any critics may say or believe, I don't think anyone would argue that you weren't extremely talented. I was a gentleman. That's not even my name. Or actually, a better question: how did Bloodsport first come together?Sheldon Lettich: [producer] Mark DiSalle invited me to lunch. What follows is a conversation with Sheldon Lettich, who was thescreenwriter ofthe movie Bloodsport. And he ends up doing a test of speed with this guy named Vic Moore. And they wouldn't show it to me. And they weren't returning phone calls. He didn't like it. While trying to gain access into. That was really my very first entry into the Writer's Guild.Blake Harris: Moving up the ranksSheldon Lettich: Yeah, and around this time I wrote a Vietnam screenplay that got me my first agent. So I go in to pitch my idea and his development executive, she was just flabbergasted when I showed her the magazine cover and told her about the idea. And it was just surreal to her. People would just assume that this is how it worked on those other two movies.Blake Harris: That makes sense.Sheldon Lettich: So I actually suggested to Jean-Claude that he use Frank Dux to write the script. It's not something that I'm interested in, but good luck." Unlike so many of the testosterone-fueled films of the '80s, Bloodsport holds the rare distinction of being based on a true story. We encountered a few phonies, but eventually we put together a core group. We may receive a commission on purchases made from links. However, speaking of the UFC, Frank Dux does have a tangential connection to the UFC. I said, "You're trying to prove to yourself that you could do it. He was born with all sorts of birth defectshe had one leg shorter than the other, he didn't have a jawboneand because of my own, I don't know, "disability," we became friends. Stallone's original idea was that [Colonel Sam] Trautman comes to Rambo and says something like: hey, I got a mission for you in Afghanistan. In fact, we explored Post Traumatic Stress in the play, but the term PTSD had not even been coined yet. You can listen to theBloodsportedition of the HDTGM podcasthere. So I thought that it was a good idea to keep my options open. 8. And Leon was going to star in the movie, which we called The White House All Stars with the "White House" being a frat house at this college where all the football players lived. I'm not talking our toes are over the edge. To turn it into a TV series. And it's kind of funny because those are superfluous elements to the film. So we pitched him Legionnaire, gave him the treatment and Ed went for it.Blake Harris: You mentioned that Columbia passed on Legionnaire because it didn't "stick with the Van Damme formula." And it was painful. He couldn't say anything. He's got a lot of abilities. And as soon as he was back in LA, he gave me a call and came over to my apartment in Park La Brea. This thing, it had legs, and started traveling around the world (London, Australia, etc. But back then it sounded really cool.Blake Harris: Well you started that clich!Sheldon Lettich: [laughter] Back then, to say "based on a true story" was something that intrigued, and I think it particularly intrigued Menahem Golan. They didn't have any proper uniforms. It was called Firebase and was basically Zulu in Vietnam; about a small disparate group forced together on a Firebase that gets attacked by an overwhelming number of North Vietnamese. He's not very good, of course, but the judo instructor steps in for Barney and then kicks the ass of the guy who's been picking on him. Menahem says, "Oh, Corsican Brothers, that's perfect for Jean-Claude! And I gotta give him credit there. We'd shoot one side of the screen with one of the brothers and then Jean-Claude would have to change his hair, make-up, wardrobe and we'd have a double standing in for another brother. It's incredible." I think that's why people really love it. And a lot of those worked well when Jean-Claude recut it.Blake Harris: I suspect that part of the reason they worked is because you, based on your experiences, were able to bring a certain authenticity to it.Frank Dux: I think so too. Because for years he would turn down roles if his character had to be defeated at the end. I thought: Oh shit, I'm going to get my ass handed to me. And at this point in time I don't think it's going to happen.Blake Harris: Ah, too bad. I was there at every meeting and, of course, they were getting all the ideas out of me. And so, you know, it was just a nice fit. Tiger Tanaka, right? I need to tell you about something that happened first. 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. Menahem started to realize what he had with Jean-Claudeand remember, he had two more movies with himso he called us into his office and said, "We need to find our next movie for Jean-Claude." Thus, gladiatorial combats originally possessed a sacred significance. What was the reaction like from Sheldon, Jean-Claude and Mark [DiSalle]?Frank Dux: They didn't care at that point. And he did that to Sheldon several times. I mean, the guy announced his malice. The one thing that we did that made the film work so well is that we would do one "twinning shot" per scene. KUMITE! She loved it. It was awarded the Drama-Logue Critics' Award for Direction and the Los Angeles Drama Critics' Award for Ensemble Performance. I went into the offices of the L.A. Times with my attorney with the actual fight film footage. In Etruscan society, gladiatorial games were supposed to be part of the funerary rituals honoring the dead. Bloodsport Oral History Synopsis: U.S. Army Captain Frank Dux ( Jean-Claude Van Damme ), who had been trained as a boy by the legendary Ninjutsu master Senzo Tanaka, decides to honor his mentor. With Jean-Claude Van Damme, Donald Gibb, Leah Ayres, Norman Burton. Released in 1988, Bloodsport tells the story of Frank Dux (Jean-Claude Van Damme), a captain in the U.S. Army and an experienced martial artist, who ignores his superiors and competes in an illegal martial arts tournament in Hong Kong. They wanted to stick with the Van Damme formula. But it was interesting because he's fighting Mike Stone and Mike Stone had reportedly 91 wins. he's a terrible actor. I was going to say something like, "By the way, there's actually someone here who worked on the movie and he can maybe answer some of your questions" and he was going to come out and everyone would have went f***ing crazy. For the first time in about 14 years. 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. Joseph Papp heard about it, so he brought the show to the Public Theatre in New York. And then Hollywood got to him and he started showing signs of manic depression, you know?Blake Harris: In what way?Frank Dux: I'll never forget. And then Troutman gets captured by the Russians and Rambo's feeling guilt because he let his buddy down. Even though we thought the movie was better, Menahem didn't. Jean-Claude saw Menahem on the street, did a U-Turn and said, "Hey Menahem, remember me? John had convinced somebody there that doing this play was a good idea for veterans. 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." He was good at boxing. I did some research and realized I wanted to do a French Foreign Legion movie. He tells one where he says he met Menahem Golan [a producer on Bloodsport] at a restaurant and [Van Damme] threw out his legs and blah blah blah. We just became friends almost immediately. Showed him a few screenplays that I had written and we decided to work together on this. Ed Boon and John Tobias, the creators of legendary video game Mortal Kombat, were inspired in part by Bloodsport. I said to Frank, "That's a great title for a movie." He was good at stiff karate moves, but that was it. Everything you've just been telling me about this Kumite, that's a great idea for a movie. For me, martial arts is just a release. Except the version that Stallone had in mind was for a present day French Foreign Legion movie about two American buddies who enlist. He was actually going to come to that Bloodsport screening in North Hollywood [referenced in our conversation with Frank Dux]. The red one, the blue one, the black one. Or any agent's records? Because believe it or not, Robert DuBois truly was the man known for shooting the Man of Steel with a bullet in DC canon. He was totally against any kind of steroids. And I was right: He came with [Bloodsport actor] Michel Qissi and two other guys. This was significant not only because he wrote the screenplay for Bloodsport, but also because Dux had said some unflattering things about the writer. 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. 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