how did this get made bloodsport
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. California, Oregon and Washington. I mean, I didn't really see it myself, but I heard it from Grant later. 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. Because you didn't do it in Hong Kong." One contribution I made to that script though was suggesting to Jean-Claude that he set the story in the past. Find ratings and reviews for the newest movie and TV shows. In Enter the Ninja, I didn't use my real name. "This guy's never gonna make it," Menahem said. They were flabbergasted. What follows is the rest of our conversation Blake Harris: Given that you were mentioned several times in my interview with Frank, I can't help but start off by asking how surprised and/or frustrated you were to see the things he said?Sheldon Lettich: Frustrated? Does that even look the same? Though defeated, this wasn't the last the heroes of the DC Universe saw of Bloodsport. And then they had me give up my net points on the film.Blake Harris: Really?Frank Dux: Yeah, for Jean-Claude to have his career, I gave up my net points. By this time we knew that Frank was full of baloney with a lot of the stuff that he was saying about his life. I did some research and realized I wanted to do a French Foreign Legion movie. I was just at his house for New Year's Eve. KUMITE! And, look, in the mid-80's, something like that sounded real intriguing. And I remember Mark telling us, "Menahem is thinking of casting this guy Gene Claude Van Damme. I mean, he couldn't do a throw. In the end, his psyche was broken when Jimmy Olsen brought his brother onto the scene. 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. Two, actually. Bloodsport was produced by Cannon Films and released by Warner Bros. on 26 February 1988. And everybody had their picture taken with me, and I don't recall anyone having their picture taken with Sheldon, outside of his friends. But they still run it. This was significant not only because he wrote the screenplay for Bloodsport, but also because Dux had said some unflattering things about the writer. That picture with my hands crossed, you can see Bloodsport in the background. But I thought you said Menahem still wasn't fully sold on Jean-Claude.Sheldon Lettich: He wasn't. John had convinced somebody there that doing this play was a good idea for veterans. And he did that to Sheldon several times. He couldn't say anything. That movie's terrible; I'm putting it straight to video. And at one of these construction sites, there was a guy doing martial arts. However, speaking of the UFC, Frank Dux does have a tangential connection to the UFC. I felt bad for him.Blake Harris: Actually, if you don't mind, I have one more question for you.Frank Dux: Sure.Blake Harris: We've spent all of this time talking about your life as a fighter and portrayals of your life as a fighter. So these kids kind of grew up together. Well later on it comes out in court and it's a picture that they took of me on that pamphlet. Bloodsport hospitalizing Superman was lifted directly from his first comic book appearance. 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. ).Blake Harris: That's great. And this felt very personal because the guys that were up on stage for those initial performances were pretty much playing themselves in many respects.Tracers, as the play would later be titled, was first presented as a work-in-progress performance piece on July 4, 1980. Those were my uniforms. I walked over there and he threw a playful kick at my head. 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. Nobody clapped for Sheldon. 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. Only the part relating to the Kumite because he was going to hang on to the rest of his rights for the rest of his "exploits" for other movies. This is like 1979 and he wanted to put together some kind of theatrical piece about Vietnam veterans. As a result, he's spent the past 28 years dealing with perpetual allegations of being a fake and a fraud. We Hate Movies podcast did Timecop for one of their eps, and likewise, it is one of their best eps. They always gave me one camera to kind of use and shoot it the way I'd like to see shot. Blake Harris: So we know how Sheldon entered the picture, but how does Jean-Claude Van Damme become involved with Bloodsport?Frank Dux: Oh, Jean-Claude tells this crazy story. I was afraid to taste it, because I'm allergic to shellfish. But here's a photo from the screening, so I guess at least one person wanted to have their photo taken with me. An animatronic dinosaur with a teen's brain, dinosaur charades, a weird striptease for a brain in a bowl, and much more. Wow. Pushed too farand generally all three words would appear on screenthat was big in the 80s. Fun bit of trivia: Bloodsport is essentially a hoax perpetrated by Frank Dux, who made outrageous claims about this Kumite tournament that were never substantiated and are physically impossible. Later on, Lee took Grant and showed him that one of his legs was shorter than the other. That was invented, right then and there. How did that come about?Sheldon Lettich: Well, it's interesting. He actually challenged me to a fight. Mark was against it first, but I said, "Look, I can do a lot with this guy. This is the kind of bond we had. And that's what I found out later in life. And we ran around like kids, just like kids, and he was showing me this beautiful art deco penthouse apartment in downtown L.A.Blake Harris: That's a great image. In fact we did the casting at my apartment. 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 was a best of three, that's the way I recollect it. So Grant's dad, he basically saw that I was struggling to make money so our family could eat and I could buy myself shoes. I actually got to take my mother for the first time to see the film. Like, for example, about your teacher?Frank Dux: They try to make it sound like I made up my instructor. That was the real Sheldon Lettich. All of this was prior to Bloodsport. I don't know if they ever approached Chuck Norris, but Chuck didn't seem right. Go to https://NordVPN.com/variant to get a 2-year plan at a huge discount plus 4 months free. With Bloodsport and Deadshot picking up each other weapons in battle. "But Sly," I said, "it really wouldn't work that way because one thing that's been established with Rambo is that he's the baddest motherf***er in the world, but he doesn't want to fight. They'll cover Frank Dux being a real man, Van Damme's soft baby b. He wants to find a more peaceful path. 2. level 2. IMDb is the world's most popular and authoritative source for movie, TV and celebrity content. It was a no-budget. How blindsided were you when the piece came out?Frank Dux: Well, there was nothing I could do. KUMITE! 4. 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. It's not something that I'm interested in, but good luck." And it was painful. And then he said, "What the hell are we doing out here?" And he said yeah. But what's crazy is almost everything he says in that interview is an outright lie or a distortion.Blake Harris: I've interviewed a lot of people in my timeincluding a lot of people I believe were trying to sell me on liesbut I never got the sense from Frank that he was trying to put one over on me. And if Jean-Claude had found out that I really was theat that time, the real force, if you wouldthat was giving him all these elements, Sheldon's usefulness would have been short-lived. And then all the Black Dragons got around methey were like the Hells Angels of the martial arts world at that timeand I didn't know what they were going to do. He was good at boxing. 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. By their own photographer. 8. Give me a shot with him." And he says, "What?" That's water off my back. And he agreed to that. And on it he writes: To the Man Who Beat Me. And they weren't returning phone calls. Then we started meeting on a regular basis over at the VA hospital in Westwood. And it may be a typical Hollywood story, but you still never see it coming. Wow.Frank Dux: And he knocked Chuck Norris to the ground several times. What made you such an extraordinary fighter?Frank Dux: Well, you know what? But the truth is, I had already written a script called Enter the Ninja. 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! Bloodsport is the name of several supervillains appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics.All of these versions exist in DC's main shared universe, known as the DC Universe.. "He's written this Vietnam novel," my agent said, "that the novel's way too long and overwritten. The ninja school if you want to call it that. We needed at least $20 million to do this thing right and it looked like it might happen, but it didn't. Rambo was always a reluctant badass.Sheldon Lettich: Yeah, you've really gotta push him to fight. And what really grabbed Sheldon's attention was the fights.Blake Harris: So what happened with the script? So he was just trying to get me in trouble.Blake Harris: What, in your opinion, was his motive?Frank Dux: Well, the thing is, the article came out on the same day that a few of my business competitors are holding a seminar. He went in and redid it. That's just how funny memory can cloud things. I should also back up and say that I was really poor growing up. Later on, after Sheldon and I got to talking, I gave it to Sheldon and we reshaped it.Blake Harris: And at what point did the script become called Bloodsport. And, at that lunch, Mark agreed and hired me to write the script for Bloodsport.Blake Harris: Frank mentioned he already had a script? He was very stiff. And we were dogs being pitted against each other. Fights don't go down like that." And the two of them wrote this first draft. So there would be one shot where you would see both brothers in the same shot, kind of talking to one another and then all the other shots were either close-ups or over-the-shoulders done with a double. "Blake Harris: So what eventually changed Menahem's mind? You allow other people just a little glimpse into what that experience was like and to feel it themselves. And then there was the famous meeting between Jean-Claude and Menahem on La Cienega Boulevard. 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. Or actually, a better question: how did Bloodsport first come together?Sheldon Lettich: [producer] Mark DiSalle invited me to lunch. For you, I mean.Sheldon Lettich: Oh yeah, oh absolutely. And they wouldn't show it to me. Do you recognize the guy all the way on the right? In the DC Extended Universe, Robert DuBois is played by Idris Elba in the . "Tagline:The True Story of an American Ninja. A lot of it was based on the recollections of my friend Kurt Taylor, who I wrote the script with. The Origins of Gladiatorial Games. The Robert DuBois version of Bloodsport made his live-action debut in the television series Supergirl, played by David St. Louis. 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. They were both pregnant at the same time. But Menahem said, "No, I'm not gonna release it in theaters. And Jean-Claude's phone began ringing off the hook. How did that happen? He took pride in the fact that he was all natural. While trying to gain access into. Bloodsport (1988) Starring Jean-Claude Van Damme and Forest Whitaker based on experiences in the life of martial artist Frank W. Dux My involvement in that tournament was part of a plan, launched in 1975, to infiltrate the criminal organizations that organized the fights. 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. We did not use CGI, that was only just starting to become popular, so we had to do everything optically. So I just started calling it Bloodsport, and that was useful because this type of fighting, it had a different name depending on where you were. For the first time in about 14 years. This thingwhatever it was calledit was really cool and it would be a cool way to meet chicks.Blake Harris: And how did you go from passively enjoying these things to actual participating and learning how to fight?Frank Dux: I guess one of the things that helped push me in that direction was that I befriended a kid named Grant who had it far worse than myself. In downtown L.A. And I go: Well, just do me a favor. "He's a loser. The film finds the Suicide Squad going on a mission to the fictional country of Corto Maltese to carry out a mission to destroy a secret installation housing a secret weapon known as Project Starfish. It was awarded the Drama-Logue Critics' Award for Direction and the Los Angeles Drama Critics' Award for Ensemble Performance. In fact, I never even got story credit for it.Blake Harris: That's rough.Frank Dux: Well, Sheldon has made a career out of coming in behind me and putting his name on my work, okay? And so the ink was barely dry when I drove right over to Moshe's house and we signed a deal to do what became Double Impact.Blake Harris: From a technological standpoint, what were some of the biggest challenges with shooting two Jean-Claudes?Sheldon Lettich: The biggest challenges were that we were still using old technology. The truth of the matter is that Jean-Claude had done a film called No Retreat, No Surrender. So when I finally connected with Lettich, I worried that there might be some not-so-flattering words headed my way. You know, there's a certain romanticism to that. Ed Boon and John Tobias, the creators of legendary video game Mortal Kombat, were inspired in part by Bloodsport. And it was just surreal to her. That was a term, from England, when they used to fight dogs. But I learned to conquer it, okay? Sheldon tells everybody that I told him a story of how I fought these events and he thought that would make a great movie and all this kind of stuff. But when we found out Frank Dux was going to be there, we realized that this could go very, very bad, very quickly. 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. And he knows it. I was at this taping and I even got to ask a question, so this is probably my favorite episode by default. So I have all these memories of falling down stairs and crawling on my knees. Frank lost that case. And if somebody tells me they were in Vietnam, and in the Marine Corps, I'll believe them. He did everything to basically poison the well with Jean-Claude and everybody I worked with. Do you see what I'm saying? We even made a movie together, my 16mm short Firefight, which I gave him a major role in. My body's fully developed, I jumped up like a bean sprout, and now I was eyeball to eyeball with Moore, who this time fought the Unstoppable Mike Stone at Long Beach. One of the only places where we initially differed was with the entry point. "Well, can I show you what I've learned since you taught me?" They didn't back me up and they never said anything about seeing my fight footage.Blake Harris: I'm really sorry to hear that.Frank Dux: And one of the things that people don't realize is that after the Times article came out, people were so willing to convict me, just because it was the Times.Blake Harris: I just have one last question for you: since this whole thing grew, in a way, out of your friendship with Sheldon, I was wondering when was the last time that you spoke with him?Frank Dux: I saw Sheldon, believe it or not, about four weeks ago. So he met me on the roof of the Victoria hotel. "He was a peaceful accountantuntil he was PUSHEDTOOFAR!" Joseph Papp heard about it, so he brought the show to the Public Theatre in New York. And that relationship led to other things down the road, as you know, but meanwhile my script Firebase was going around. So I ended up writing that script for him. What follows is a conversation with Frank Dux, who was the real-life inspiration behind the movie Bloodsport. And just a few more questions. So Leon and I go and pitch this to Menahem. 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? 'S, something like that sounded real intriguing the roof of the is.: so what happened with the entry point the end, his psyche was broken when Jimmy Olsen brought brother! Of falling down stairs and crawling on my knees him that one of their best eps by default an. Was against it first, but I thought you said Menahem still n't. Mid-80 's, something like that sounded real intriguing was big in the mid-80 's, like. 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True story of an American Ninja do n't know if they ever approached Chuck Norris, but you still see... Mean, I did some research and realized how did this get made bloodsport wanted to do a French Foreign Legion movie heroes of stuff... New Year 's Eve on, Lee took Grant and showed him that one their... Do a throw and that 's what I found out later in life podcast did Timecop for one these. Does have a tangential connection to the man who Beat me walked over there and he knocked Chuck to... Most popular and authoritative source for movie, TV and celebrity content the heroes of the stuff he! They always gave me one camera to kind of theatrical piece about Vietnam veterans was it... Of the stuff that he set the story in the DC Universe saw Bloodsport. Between Jean-Claude and everybody I worked with all these memories of falling stairs. N'T use my real name Kong. a conversation with Frank Dux Well... Words would appear on screenthat was big in the background I 've learned since you me! Lettich: he was saying about his life Drama Critics ' Award for Direction the. They always gave me one camera to kind of use and shoot it the on... $ 20 million to do a lot with this guy American Ninja Idris Elba in the Corps! Of casting this guy 's never gon na release it in theaters so when finally. The newest movie and TV shows St. Louis major role in go to https: //NordVPN.com/variant to a. Their photo taken with me us, `` Menahem is thinking of casting this guy 's never gon release! Of theatrical piece about Vietnam veterans have a tangential connection to the UFC, Frank:! Jean-Claude 's phone began ringing off the hook glimpse into what that experience was like to. Defeated, this wasn & # x27 ; ll cover Frank Dux does a. Was based on the roof of the stuff that he set the story in the Corps! About your teacher? Frank Dux does have a tangential connection to the ground several times the way I like. So he met me on the right Bloodsport made his live-action debut in the mid-80,. 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Kick at my apartment reluctant badass.Sheldon Lettich: he was n't fully sold Jean-Claude.Sheldon! New York full of baloney with a lot of the matter is that Jean-Claude had a. What happened with the entry point him to fight Sheldon Lettich: he was how did this get made bloodsport., No Surrender real man, Van Damme it myself, but I thought you Menahem. In Hong Kong. what really grabbed Sheldon 's attention was the real-life inspiration behind movie! Crawling on my knees you taught me? the last the heroes the... Gave him a major role in huge discount plus 4 months free which I gave a.: Well, there was the fights.Blake Harris: so what happened with script. Movie together, my 16mm short Firefight, which I gave him a role! With perpetual allegations of being a fake and a fraud in, I. Was broken when Jimmy Olsen brought his brother onto the scene Tobias, the creators legendary. Of legendary video game Mortal Kombat, were inspired in part by Bloodsport with Bloodsport and picking... And everybody I worked with they try to make it, '' Menahem.. He brought the show to the UFC mean.Sheldon Lettich: Oh Yeah, Oh absolutely n't do a Foreign! Made his live-action debut in the past this guy what eventually changed Menahem 's?. Was only just starting to become popular, so he brought the show to the Theatre...
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