We got a couple stories in the news worth discussing over the weekend in my opinion. Feel free to add your own topics in the comments as long as it’s Badass Cinema current events related. No cheating. Please use common sense, Paul.
THEY’RE REMAKING BLOODSPORT
Screen Daily broke the news this week that Phillip Noyce (SALT) is gonna direct a remake of Van Damme’s BLOODSPORT, written by Robert Mark Kamen. They say the story will be about an American (soldier?) who goes to Brazil “to recover from the violence he has experienced in Afghanistan” and then I guess he gets involved in the ol’ Kumite. So it sounds like they won’t be going back to the supposedly true story of Frank Dux that the original was supposed to be based on. I bet they still say “based on a true story” though, like The Rock’s WALKING TALL.
My stance on this one is neutral. I’m all for a bigger budget martial-arts-tournament-to-the-death movie. Doesn’t seem like it should have to be called BLOODSPORT, but I’m not gonna cry about it. Kamen is best known for writing the original KARATE KID and a whole bunch of movies with Luc Besson (THE FIFTH ELEMENT, KISS OF THE DRAGON, THE TRANSPORTER trilogy, BANDIDAS, TAKEN, COLOMBIANA) so he’s not the greatest but knows what he’s doing and is capable of sometimes hitting it. Noyce is at a similar level of trustworthiness. He did DEAD CALM, BLIND FURY, some other stuff I heard was good. My biggest concern with him is that he did SALT and though it was fun it was all post-action. I hope he doesn’t think he can get away with a tournament movie where you can’t see the fights.
I guess we’ll wait and see who they cast as the star. I’m guessing it won’t be a martial artist. If I may make a recommendation: there is only one marquee name today who can compete with these facial expressions from the original:
You know who I’m talking about, and producer Ed Pressman already worked with him in BAD LIEUTENANT: PORT OF CALL NEW ORLEANS. Have him star, or better yet have him as the Bolo Yeung character:
Or you could get Jim Carrey I guess.
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RICH LADY BUYS TERMINATOR RIGHTS
You may have read a week or two ago about how Justin Lin (FAST AND FURIOUS 3-5) and Arnold Schwarzenegger were on board for a new Terminator movie. I love what Lin has done with those movies and I’m glad to see it paying off for him, and also I’m really excited about Schwarzenegger coming back to movies. But I kind of think they should leave the Terminator be, and I especially think Arnold should follow the Clint path like he said he was gonna and make movies that take advantage of his age. I’m not sure how that fits in with playing an ageless robot. Er I mean cybernetic organism. I guess the real human flesh ages?
Anyway that’s hit a snag because Schwarzenegger has that personal issue going on right now and decided to put the movie plans on hold again. Which I hope frees up Lin to do FURIOUS SIX. But the interesting part of what’s going on, in my opinion, is that Megan Ellison outbid Lionsgate and got the rights for at least two Terminator movies.
Have you ever had a conversation with your film nerd buddies and they said if they were a billionaire they would give Jodorowsky the money to make whatever he wants, or some shit like that? Well, Megan Ellison is the daughter of a billionaire CEO, and she’s a film buff, and she’s doing something like that. She seems to have good taste. Okay, so her name is on PASSION PLAY, but also TRUE GRIT. When John Hillcoat and Paul Thomas Anderson were having trouble getting any studios to fund THE WETTEST COUNTY IN THE WORLD and THE MASTER she pulled out her wallet. She’s also producing Andrew CHOPPER Dominik’s COGAN’S TRADE, Wong Kar Wai’s Ip Man movie THE GRANDMASTERS and an untitled-so-far Charlie Kaufman/Spike Jonze joint.
So if somebody’s gonna be making new TERMINATOR movies I’m glad this lady is in charge and not the people that shit out a new SAW every year.
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MEANINGLESS UNIVERSAL SOLDIER UPDATE
I think fight choreographer Larnell Stovall is trying to imply that Michael Jai White has a cameo in the new UNIVERSAL SOLDIER by posting this photo of him with a “no comment.”
That would be weird if he was in it at all, since he played the main antagonist in part 4, a chapter that was thankfully ignored in REGENERATION. I think more likely he was just visiting his buddies from the UNDISPUTED series.
Anyway what we do know is Jon Hyams is working from his own script, teaming with Scott Adkins, Stovall (choreographer of UNDISPUTED III), Van Damme and Lundgren, and in 3D… jesus man. Release this in theaters, please.
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HUNGER GAMES UPDATE
I’m gonna go eat lunch now.
May 20th, 2011 at 4:06 pm
I am all for Nic Cage playing both the hero and the villain of BLOODSPORT: PORT OF CALL FIST CITY. The only problem is that every hack critic would make a “Cage match” joke, and the last thing we want to do is encourage those assholes.