Thus, gladiatorial combats originally possessed a sacred significance. Over the centuries, however, these . In fact we did the casting at my apartment. The 20 episodes of How Did This Get Made listed below offer a taste of the world that the hosts have built. I did some research and realized I wanted to do a French Foreign Legion movie. Roger Moore co-starred along side Van Damme in The Quest (1996) ironically playing a James Bond actor which Frank Dux had said inspired him to learn martial arts in the first place. I said, "Real Kumite fighters, we fight here. But it was interesting because he's fighting Mike Stone and Mike Stone had reportedly 91 wins. It was "Dukes." And that piece, filled with accusations and allegations, continues even to this day cast doubt upon the reputation of Frank Dux. I said to Frank, "That's a great title for a movie." And then he did a kick that missed his face by like two inches. Do you still believe I that?" 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. Yet with Bloodsport, this was not the case. How did that come about?Sheldon Lettich: Well, it's interesting. But, I mean, he couldn't do a forward roll when I first got him. A little bit. He liked the authenticity in it and he'd heard about Tracers also. And I remember Mark telling us, "Menahem is thinking of casting this guy Gene Claude Van Damme. We pitched it to them and they were kind of interested, but at the end of the day they decided not to do it. So I have all these memories of falling down stairs and crawling on my knees. Took me a long, long time to write that script. And I walked out on the ledge and I was waiting for him because I knew he wasn't going to come alone. Despite mixed reviews from critics, it was a considerable box office success, grossing $50 million on a budget of $1.5-2.3 million. Please note as always his opinions, recollections and claims are his own, and not necessarily fact. At that point, it was to their advantage. But the truth is, I had already written a script called Enter the Ninja. Like, very famously, he turned down Demolition Man. 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. You see it all the time. Leon hired me to write a script, which Menahem ended up liking. But he was telling me about this tournament that he participated in where all the best fighters in the world showed up. And he was brought to our attention through Sheldon. None of it.Blake Harris: InterestingFrank Dux: And Shoto Tanemura, he says he's never heard of a Dukes or a Tanaka? He frickin' landed on his head, in front of all my students. How Did This Get Made's ad-free archives are available on Stitcher Premium. A number of ideas were thrown out. A secret martial arts contest? One of these covert operatives was one Frank Dux. He knew enough buzzwords to make me think he's the real deal, he's probably been over there. joins Paul, June, and Jason to break down the 1994 Sly Stallone & Sharon Stone thriller The Specialist, a movie that argues bombs are more precise weapons than guns. Then we needed someone different to play the Chuck Norris role. KUMITE! In downtown L.A. And I go: Well, just do me a favor. And it was a Xeroxed copy of a receipt, a copy that anyone could fabricate on a home copy machine. And so he told Menahem, "Sell it to me and I'll release it theatrically." It was awarded the Drama-Logue Critics' Award for Direction and the Los Angeles Drama Critics' Award for Ensemble Performance. For you, I mean.Sheldon Lettich: Oh yeah, oh absolutely. he's a terrible actor. To my face he's pretending to be my best buddy, but behind my back he's doing everything in his power to undermine me in my career and take credit for my work.Blake Harris: I'm really sorry to hear that.Frank Dux: And that's a typical Hollywood story, right? "Below are some of the key points and accusations made in the piece: Frank Dux: By the way, the L.A. Times won't even defend the article anymore. Plus the guy was just an idol of mine. How did you feel afterwards?Frank Dux: It was an enlightening moment. With Jean-Claude Van Damme, Donald Gibb, Leah Ayres, Norman Burton. And he did that to Sheldon several times. He didn't know what to think. So I thought that it was a good idea to keep my options open. And I'm talking a six-inch ledge. But I got over it.Blake Harris: Well, given that physically you were not a prime candidate for hand-to-hand combat, how did the idea of martial arts even first cross your radar?Frank Dux: As a kid, as a young kid, I was a James Bond fan. What was the reaction like from Sheldon, Jean-Claude and Mark [DiSalle]?Frank Dux: They didn't care at that point. Jean-Claude is poison!! And he was an idol of Jean-Claude's too.Blake Harris: Yeah? What was all this camaraderie about? I think that's why people really love it. 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. Poison! He couldn't say anything. So he still didn't' have a lot of faith in Jean-Claude's acting abilities and decided not to make it. 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. 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. Let's put Jean-Claude in. Ed Boon and John Tobias, the creators of legendary video game Mortal Kombat, were inspired in part by Bloodsport. That's kind of how it appealed to me. We do it your way. Well, here's the reality of the situation. But I'm curious, getting back to what you were saying earlierand what to ultimately led to that story you describedat what point was the producer Mark DiSalle convinced that Jean-Claude would work? Oh man, he f***ing hated that movie. When I was growing up, you couldn't even find "martial arts" in the encyclopedia. She said, "Wait a minute, I'll be right back" and then comes in with the same magazine. Then Jean-Claude came in and worked with Michael on the fight scenes, re-working those. "Blake Harris: So what eventually changed Menahem's mind? Fights don't go down like that." Like I'm a kook because he comes out of a James Bond movie: You Only Live Twice. But Vic explained it to me. The Robert DuBois version of Bloodsport made his live-action debut in the television series Supergirl, played by David St. Louis. And that's what I found out later in life. That's what they always show on the history channel, those two to the head. And it may be a typical Hollywood story, but you still never see it coming. I think what happened in reality was more interesting, but you have a limited amount of time to tell a story and it has to resonate with the audience, you know? At one point it was the second most profitable article they'd ever written. 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! He was crushed. That it would be helpful and therapeutic.Blake Harris: And was it? It's the amazing tale of Frank Dux, a Caucasian martial artist who fought in (and won) a ruthless secret tournament that's held only once every five years. Occasionally he'd come by the studio. And, at that lunch, Mark agreed and hired me to write the script for Bloodsport.Blake Harris: Frank mentioned he already had a script? But if they did Bloodsport, then they can do Timecop. 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. 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. Give me your best shot. I need to tell you about something that happened first. It was also seen by Viacom. Jean-Claude Van Damme." And I could see he was really contemplating it. They always gave me one camera to kind of use and shoot it the way I'd like to see shot. It's risk free with Nord's 30 day money-back guarantee! DuBois' Bloodsport first appeared in Superman Vol 2 #4 by John Byrne back in 1987. You spent almost four years in the U.S. Marine Corps, is that correct?Sheldon Lettich: Yeah, I served as a radio operator in South Vietnam and then later with 1st Force Reconnaissance Company based at Camp Pendleton, California.Blake Harris: So how did you go about making that enormous transition from wartime soldier to Hollywood writer?Sheldon Lettich: Well, surprisingly enough, my first success came in the theater. I mean, the guy announced his malice. 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. Tiger Tanaka, right? Later on, Lee took Grant and showed him that one of his legs was shorter than the other. And at this point in time I don't think it's going to happen.Blake Harris: Ah, too bad. But he had a great imagination, he had good ideas and he knew the martial arts world pretty well. I had my then-fianc back in the United States get all the uniforms for them. I always try to look for the best in people. 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. What follows is a conversation with Sheldon Lettich, who was thescreenwriter ofthe movie Bloodsport. Dux said the military ordered his record sabotaged to discredit him. He saw the script. Do you recognize the guy all the way on the right? 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. Plus, we hear LL Cool J's hip-hop prayer and the best . 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. KUMITE! But I learned to conquer it, okay? Double Impact was financed, mostly, through pre-sales and, as it was structured, each of those companies also own a piece of the movie. And I was writing for Stallone at the time and I actually asked Jean-Claude for some help with some of the dialogue for a script I was working on.Blake Harris: I imagine that this was during that timeabout two years or sowhen Bloodsport just kind of sat there on the shelves. Bloodsport: Directed by Newt Arnold. Back when I first started working with Stallone, my agent had told me to bring an idea to pitch him for a script. And I said, "To be the best you've gotta fight the best. Okay, okay, you made your point. 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. You said "we were working on a sequel." 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 it became real clear and finallyI said show me the proof that I represented myself as a war hero, as a Medal of Honor hero? He's in a documentary saying this. No, never. It was done on the exact same day that Masaaki Hatsumi, Stephen Hayes and Shoto Tanemurathese are guys who think no one in the world is a ninja but them and everyone else is a fake.Blake Harris: What about some of the specific claims that the piece makes? So he started taking me to construction sites where I could get work. Anyways, they didn't pay me for doing my work on The Corsican Brothers and Delta Force 2. You know, there's a certain romanticism to that. That's just how funny memory can cloud things. And they did. 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. One of the key sequences in the film finds Task Force X sent to free Rick Flag from an enemy camp. And we actually got hired by Motown to write this script! Well I did, and I landed one right on his nose.Blake Harris: Really?Frank Dux: Yeah, and he was not happy about that. When I heard that name, it was like bells started ringing. Dux aped the premise behind Enter the Dragon, then claimed it as true. A lot of it was based on the recollections of my friend Kurt Taylor, who I wrote the script with. In the early to mid 90s, dinosaurs were soooo cool! "Well, can I show you what I've learned since you taught me?" And he says, "What?" And so he says yeah, sure, give it a shot. It worked great. Ian Fleming based his characters on real people. While trying to gain access into. And then one day I get invited down to the Long Beach Invitationals. That this guy looks just like me and we should suggest it to Mark DiSalle. Then he said, "It's my movie too and I want what's best for the film! 5 years ago. KUMITE! And so we climbed back over the wall and onto the set. Sometimes we get answers to questions like these, and other times we do not. And then he said, "What the hell are we doing out here?" "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 because of the braces and how the legs were locked togethera steel bar locked them togetheryou couldn't even waddle, you know? 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. And at one of these construction sites, there was a guy doing martial arts. Dux's trophy from the Bahamas event was at least partially made in the San Fernando Valley. 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. The other thing is that Jean-Claude, like I said, he had this uncanny way he looked. So he pitched me the story for Kickboxer and I said, "Well, if you're looking for a martial arts film, I've got one of my own that I think you might likeBloodsport." Paul, June, and Jason discuss the 1994 science fiction comedy Tammy and the T-Rex. I gotta tell you: Seeing it years later, I didn't realize how good it was. During that time, he's never felt like he had a platform to defuse those lies and tell his side of the storyuntil now. What made you such an extraordinary fighter?Frank Dux: Well, you know what? We encountered a few phonies, but eventually we put together a core 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. Then for Double Impact we thought: let's just go for it. I actually sent for and had custom uniforms made. howdidthisgetmade@earwolf.com Episodes The Specialist LIVE! 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.

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