Bloodsport Coming Soon to Fortnite - YouTube 0:00 / 1:00 Bloodsport Coming Soon to Fortnite Fortnite 11.5M subscribers 1.6M views 1 year ago #Bloodsport #Fortnite #FortniteBloodsport. In fact we did the casting at my apartment. KUMITE! Like, very famously, he turned down Demolition Man. Frank lost that case. I don't think Stallone has ever been given his due by movie critics. We needed at least $20 million to do this thing right and it looked like it might happen, but it didn't. Oh yeah! Idc, even have a "Thor and Cap trade weapons moment" in Endgame with those two. And then he said, "What the hell are we doing out here?" Like with Legionnaire. It was very time-consuming and it was not easy to match things up with the optical printer, but I thought we did a pretty good job of that. I'll tell you one thing: When I was there, I got a standing ovation. And he says, "What?" It's risk free with Nord's 30 day money-back guarantee! And he was brought to our attention through Sheldon. These targets included the planned mining of a Nicaraguan port and the planned sabotage of certain Nicaraguan installations including power stations and weapons depots, codenamed OPERATION CORDOBA HARBOR. Like, for example, about your teacher?Frank Dux: They try to make it sound like I made up my instructor. I always try to look for the best in people. But the real contest was just punches to the chest, and Moore beat Lee like 4-2. The official budget's $1.2 million but I was told that we did that filmbelow the linefor under half a million bucks. I was at this taping and I even got to ask a question, so this is probably my favorite episode by default. At that point, it was to their advantage. And were just digging this whole notion of Jean-Claude being a Legionnaire. That kind of caught my fancy. To turn it into a TV series. Over the show's decade-long run, they've covered a lot of. Then he said, "It's my movie too and I want what's best for the film! 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. And Jean-Claude's got a really good sense of how a fight scene should be edited. I told Jean-Claude I might be getting the rights back to Corsican Brothers so he got Moshe on board. And, at that lunch, Mark agreed and hired me to write the script for Bloodsport.Blake Harris: Frank mentioned he already had a script? In the DC Extended Universe, Robert DuBois is played by Idris Elba in the . Dux said the military ordered his record sabotaged to discredit him. Nothing happened with that, but then he started paying me a little bit to write some scripts for him.Blake Harris: Did any of those get made?Sheldon Lettich: We got really close with one. He was pure, he didn't do drugs. Or actually, a better question: how did Bloodsport first come together?Sheldon Lettich: [producer] Mark DiSalle invited me to lunch. But there was a Writer's Guild arbitration and the Writer's Guild ended up giving him a co-story credit.Blake Harris: Tell me a little bit about Legionnaire. And I think it's because he felt very insecure. Blake Harris: That story in the L.A. Times was pretty brutal. One of the key sequences in the film finds Task Force X sent to free Rick Flag from an enemy camp. He's got a lot of abilities. Nobody clapped or wanted to have their picture taken with you. This thing, it had legs, and started traveling around the world (London, Australia, etc. And I'd imitate him.Blake Harris: Do you remember how old you were around this time?Frank Dux: I was 11 years old. You see my point? Bloodsport was produced by Cannon Films and released by Warner Bros. on 26 February 1988. I walked over there and he threw a playful kick at my head. Which was Mike's move. Plus the guy was just an idol of mine. In 1987's Superman #4, by John Byrne and Karl Kesel, Superman tried to stop Bloodsport's rampage through Metropolis. 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. 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. Uh, no. He had an answering machine at the time that had a limit of, like, 50 messages. And at the Invitationals, there's Bruce Lee. And Stallone felt the same way. 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. It was offered to him and Seagal. Look, Stallone was the biggest star in the world at the time and to even have a meeting with him was, to me, a huge honor. Mind you, he's alleging: You're gonna tell me a receipt floated around from 1980 to 1988? KUMITE! Okay? I don't know if the word "genius" is maybe taking it too high, but this is a very smart creative guy who is very much underappreciated. It's a sprawling ecosystem. Because for years he would turn down roles if his character had to be defeated at the end. The ninja school if you want to call it that. The government did not know how much he knew about other covert operations, he said, so they placed information in his file to destroy his credibility. He was friendly with me. And so he told Menahem, "Sell it to me and I'll release it theatrically." Did that piece directly lead to Bloodsport? If they'd actually served. And if somebody tells me they were in Vietnam, and in the Marine Corps, I'll believe them. Paul, June, and Jason discuss the 1994 science fiction comedy Tammy and the T-Rex. Are you kidding me? Enter the Ninja?Sheldon Lettich: No, there was no script prior to the "Bloodsport" script. The character is initially depicted as a vengeful veteran of the Vietnam War, angry at the people of Metropolis for their "senseless . And of course he says he did (but he didn't). And he just laughed and said, "Come on, let me show you this house. Bloodsport wasn't an Oscar-worthy film in any manner (the original cut was deemed unwatchable and a re-edit was completed before release), but Van Damme's stoic charisma and the memorable. If it's Stallone: no problem, he can kill me on screen at the end.Blake Harris: The ultimate complimentSheldon Lettich: Ha, yes.Blake Harris: Speaking of Jean-Claude, I imagine that you first met him around this time. Does that even look the same? That picture with my hands crossed, you can see Bloodsport in the background. That was the real Sheldon Lettich. I buy you dinner tonight." "This guy's never gonna make it," Menahem said. I was not an actor, so it was decided that I would be the writer member of this group. They were just being assholes.Blake Harris: That seemed to happen a lot at CannonSheldon Lettich: Now Blake, I have never filed a lawsuit against anyone in this business, but I filed a lawsuit against those guys, against Cannon. In fact, Universal had some problems with what we did there because we did not want it to be a revenge movie. And then there's another story where he met Menahem and did it another way in Monaco. We Hate Movies podcast did Timecop for one of their eps, and likewise, it is one of their best eps. In this declaration, Commander Martin attests to the following: Frank Dux: As far as my military service goes, I should also mention that I'm named as a source contributor in the US Navy SEAL SPECWAR manual. A lot of it was based on the recollections of my friend Kurt Taylor, who I wrote the script with. None of it.Blake Harris: InterestingFrank Dux: And Shoto Tanemura, he says he's never heard of a Dukes or a Tanaka? We liked the fact that we were able to do something different there. Is that what you're telling me?Blake Harris: Right, that's why I thought it would difficult to prove (or disprove).Frank Dux: Yeah, but I'll tell you what. And it misrepresents my responses. Do you still believe I that?" 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. He taught at the Nakano spy school in Japan. Hit the Subscribe button to track updates in Player FM, or paste the feed URL into other podcast apps. Kurt had played football at Prairie View College in the 60's. 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? Jean-Claude's character comes to the US to help out his brother, not with anything like revenge or violence on his mind. That's bullshit, that's total bullshit.Blake Harris: What about those claims regarding your covert military background? I think Jean-Claude and I have done just fine without 'riding his coattails,' haven't we?". I showed him pictures of this ancient fortress on a hilltop that the Russians had converted, so that became the basis for it. And he's in this movie called No Retreat, No Surrender. Shortly after running our last piece, How Did This Get Made: A Conversation with Frank Dux, the Real-Life Inspiration for Bloodsport, I was put in touch with Sheldon Lettich. The uniform they had for Jean-Claude was silk pajamas, these Chinese silk pajamas. Double Impact was financed, mostly, through pre-sales and, as it was structured, each of those companies also own a piece of the movie. Please note as always our subject'sopinions, recollections and claims are his own, and do not reflect the views of the author or this publication. 4. She loved it. Occasionally he'd come by the studio. Armed with a gun that fires Kryptonite needles, Bloodsport nearly succeeded in his mission to eliminate the Man of Steel, but ultimately failed. 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. Bloodsport. So I watched that happen and then I watched Victor Moore fight Chuck Norris.Blake Harris: Moore fought Bruce Lee and then Chuck Norris? He actually challenged me to a fight. KUMITE! So it should be a total of six blows, except this turned out to be a total of eight because of those two to Vic's head. He was totally against any kind of steroids. Use promo code BONKERS for a free month. Which kind of made Grant feel better about himself. He couldn't say anything. Apparently, Stallone had read the same article and he was thinking exactly the same thing. Sheldon Lettich: We got some amazing reviews and it just turned into a little bit of a mini-phenomenon. Like Bloodsport is one of his best movies ever but it still resulted in a great episode. I thought it was Pasadena, but everyone's told me it was Long Beach. So it was lot of college hijinks, trying to get girls and all that stuff. That's not even my name. Leon hired me to write a script, which Menahem ended up liking. Over the centuries, however, these . And he knows it. 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. He owes you two more movies! "He's a loser. You know, where people go around wearing medals and talking about their fictional war exploits.Blake Harris: That actually makes for a good, non-Frank-related jumping off point. I turned over the programs from the fights that we had in those days. He did everything to basically poison the well with Jean-Claude and everybody I worked with. More Like This Unspooled with Paul Scheer & Amy Nicholson Listen up, film fans! She'd never seen it. 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 I had to find a way for him to kind of come back in and get his mind out of it. He felt bad for him. Then Jean-Claude came in and worked with Michael on the fight scenes, re-working those. During the tournament, Dux battles an array of international fighters from various schools of martial arts. I did some research and realized I wanted to do a French Foreign Legion movie. A franchise was the idea. And Tanaka was well known. Ed Boon and John Tobias, the creators of legendary video game Mortal Kombat, were inspired in part by Bloodsport. Anyways, they didn't pay me for doing my work on The Corsican Brothers and Delta Force 2. In fact, that was the script for Stallone that Jean-Claude gave me some dialogue help with.Blake Harris: Ah, right after Bloodsport. It sold well at the box office, grossing $65 million on a budget of $1.5-2.3 million. 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. I assume you're referring to Jean-Claude. They'll cover Frank Dux being a real man, Van Damme's soft baby b. I was afraid to taste it, because I'm allergic to shellfish. 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's been carrying on like that for years and years. There's not a Tanaka in Japanese history of the ninja families? The red one, the blue one, the black one. Along with Alexander Martin.To this point, on http://frankdux.net/facts/ there is a signed declaration by Lt. But, I mean, he couldn't do a forward roll when I first got him. During that time, he's never felt like he had a platform to defuse those lies and tell his side of the storyuntil now. But when we found out Frank Dux was going to be there, we realized that this could go very, very bad, very quickly. She said, "Wait a minute, I'll be right back" and then comes in with the same magazine. 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. The Origins of Gladiatorial Games. We just became friends almost immediately. I actually got to take my mother for the first time to see the film. How Did This Get Made:A Conversation With Frank Dux, The Real-Life Inspiration For Bloodsport. Ian Fleming based his characters on real people. It was a horrible film. How blindsided were you when the piece came out?Frank Dux: Well, there was nothing I could do. So these kids kind of grew up together. How Did This Get Made is a companion to the podcastHow Did This Get MadewithPaul Scheer, Jason MantzoukasandJuneDiane Raphaelwhich focuses on movies. But Michael Dudikoff is like 6'2," and the problem was they wanted to film in Asia. He was a little too old at the time. That's water off my back. 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. 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. And so he says yeah, sure, give it a shot. 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. And here comes Moore, and Moore drops him in under 30 seconds. In front of everybody. Neither of them was about a martial arts tournament, and neither of them was ever produced. And as soon as he was back in LA, he gave me a call and came over to my apartment in Park La Brea. And I showed that in court. Give me a shot with him." KUMITE! Like I'm a kook because he comes out of a James Bond movie: You Only Live Twice. But when I got done with him he was doing front flips, he was doing great.Blake Harris: And what about his personality? I'm not talking our toes are over the edge. Sheldon wrote Legionnaire and was supposed to direct it, but then Jean-Claude got someone else. That's just how funny memory can cloud things. 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. I said, "But I can see your view from here and how the world could look bleak." Why was that the case?Sheldon Lettich: Because Menahem thought it was terrible. It was a no-budget. LIVE from Largo in Los Angeles, Nicole Byer of Party Over Here joins Paul and Jason to discuss the cult 1988 Jean-Claude Van Damme martial-arts film Bloodsport. "But I will say this," Lettich continued. 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. Yet with Bloodsport, this was not the case. There's an authenticity to it.Blake Harris: Speaking of authenticity, I was wondering how much of the movie is accurate to your own life experiences?Frank Dux: Well the fighting scenes were very accurate. So he brought Tracers to the Steppenwolf Theatre and he directed it. But I learned to conquer it, okay? And he was just a different person. 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. Surprised? And, look, in the mid-80's, something like that sounded real intriguing. We had a nice conversation and promised each other to meet up when he was back in LA. And I gotta give him credit there. Let's meet face to face. 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? We probably fought for a good 5-10 minutes before getting split up. I wrote the script, got paid a small fee and I can't remember how much time passedprobably less than a yearand via another guy named Lou Horwitza financer who, I believe, did gap-financing at the timeLou took it to Cannon. Enter the ninja? Sheldon Lettich: because Menahem thought it was Long Beach did not want to. Along with Alexander Martin.To this point, it had legs, and Jason discuss the 1994 fiction. He 's alleging: you Only Live Twice day money-back guarantee s 30 money-back. Came out? Frank Dux, the blue one, the blue one, the creators of legendary video Mortal. Get his mind Prairie View College in the a standing ovation ; in Endgame with those.. 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