So when I finally connected with Lettich, I worried that there might be some not-so-flattering words headed my way. Mind you, he's alleging: You're gonna tell me a receipt floated around from 1980 to 1988? Absolutely. All of this was prior to Bloodsport. We probably fought for a good 5-10 minutes before getting split up. How did that come about?Sheldon Lettich: Well, it's interesting. Despite mixed reviews from critics, it was a considerable box office success, grossing $50 million on a budget of $1.5-2.3 million. The piece, entitled "Kumite: A Learning Experience," was written by editor John Stewart and begins with the following note: From time to time, Black Belt learns of unusual events or occurrences in the martial arts; events thateither because of their nature or because they occurred in the distant pastcannot be easily verified. So I climbed up on the ledge with him. People don't really know that about Lee, but he had one leg shorter than the other. For you, I mean.Sheldon Lettich: Oh yeah, oh absolutely. It was a horrible film. When. Jean-Claude Van Damme." He taught at the Nakano spy school in Japan. But then Ed Pressman, who had done Street Fighter, he wanted to do another movie with Jean-Claude. I wasn't there. 4. Surprised? Was Sheldon the first person you shared it with?Frank Dux: Well, it was supposed to be a series. What really made Bloodsport special, though, was the work of Jean-Claude Van Damme. "Tagline:The True Story of an American Ninja. He was considered "unstoppable" at that time. Over the show's decade-long run, they've covered a lot of. And at this point in time I don't think it's going to happen.Blake Harris: Ah, too bad. And I remember Mark telling us, "Menahem is thinking of casting this guy Gene Claude Van Damme. And that's what I found out later in life. And Menahem was dead set against it.Blake Harris: Why?Sheldon Lettich: [Laughing at the memory] His word for Jean-Claude was "poison." Jean-Claude's character comes to the US to help out his brother, not with anything like revenge or violence on his mind. Plus, we hear LL Cool J's hip-hop prayer and the best . And we made money on that film. Told that the tournament was a secret, he said: "We would know. So those are the three elements. And I said, "To be the best you've gotta fight the best. with Andy Griffith, where Barney Fife was getting picked on and so he goes to learn judo. It was a no-budget. So you know what that means. That's what they always show on the history channel, those two to the head. I remember paying for the uniforms. Apparently, Stallone had read the same article and he was thinking exactly the same thing. A little bit. I didn't understand. And I said, "Okay, Sheldon, you get the credits, and then when you get up to the next level, you just bring me up." His point was that they just wanted to show it was a kid in trouble who could have gone down a different path, but martial arts puts him on the right path. If he had to be the bad guy and killed by the protagonist. That's water off my back. Live from Largo in L.A. they get into Samuel L. Jackson's infamous death scene, LL Cool J's relationship with his bird, Stellan Skarsgrd's new name, and how Saffron Burrows is the film's true villain. Although there is no convenient way to verify each and every detail connected with this story, the editors have verified enough of the basic facts to feel confident in publishing it. And it was painful. 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. Either way, it's fair to say that filmgoers are a pretty forgiving lot. Blake Harris: Since martial arts is, and has been, such a large part of your life, I was wondering if it was also a large part of your childhood.Frank Dux: Actually, no. During that time, I gave Jean-Claude some odd jobs. And it wasn't even for the right trophy. 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. 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. None of it.Blake Harris: InterestingFrank Dux: And Shoto Tanemura, he says he's never heard of a Dukes or a Tanaka? And so, you know, it was just a nice fit. "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. Bloodsport was produced by Cannon Films and released by Warner Bros. on 26 February 1988. He didn't like it. We do it your way. 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 had a karate background. 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. A lot of those shots came from the camera angles I had been directing. 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. Back when I first started working with Stallone, my agent had told me to bring an idea to pitch him for a script. I said, "You're trying to prove to yourself that you could do it. But the only guy in the world who could kill Jean-Claude with his permission is Sylvester Stallone. It chronicles his training by a Japanese master warrior named Tiger [Tanaka]Shoto Tanemura, a Japanese who is one of a select group of recognized Ninja masters in the world, said in an interview in Los Angeles last week that he had never heard of Dux or Tanaka. That's not even my name. Nobody clapped or wanted to have their picture taken with you. 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. And I think it's because he felt very insecure. We expect embellishment, we condone narrative condensation and we celebrate character-driven points of view. California, Oregon and Washington. I was just at his house for New Year's Eve. What was all this camaraderie about? Because Jean-Claude uses people and chews them up as quick as he can. The 20 episodes of How Did This Get Made listed below offer a taste of the world that the hosts have built. He did everything to basically poison the well with Jean-Claude and everybody I worked with. One of these covert operatives was one Frank Dux. "Blake Harris: So what eventually changed Menahem's mind? This thing, it had legs, and started traveling around the world (London, Australia, etc. 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. In fact, Midway Games attempted to license Van Damme's image for the game. 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 can listen to theBloodsportedition of the HDTGM podcasthere. This was significant not only because he wrote the screenplay for Bloodsport, but also because Dux had said some unflattering things about the writer. There were a number of people who really liked it. None of that is reported. I mean, I didn't really see it myself, but I heard it from Grant later. Bloodsport. So Frank and I go to a theater and we were both blown away by Jean-Claude. But the point I was leading up to was that Jean-Claude just wouldn't be the villain who gets killed at the end of a movie. He actually challenged me to a fight. He was good at boxing. In honor of How Did This Get Made?'s #Bloodsport episode, we made this #supercut of Jean-Claude Van Damme's super #butt! I told Menahem that the new cut of Bloodsport was great and I thought it was going to do really well. "He's a loser. I remember there was a stack of scripts lining the walltitles written on the spineand I notice one script in particular. And we actually got hired by Motown to write this script! 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. The one who's putting up his "dux? In downtown L.A. And I go: Well, just do me a favor. You gotta admire the fact that he wanted to get a real Vietnam vet working on the script with him. 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. And he says, "What?" And he did the helicopter kick in No Retreat, No Surrender and I was well known for my flying kicks and finishing guys off with my spinning flying kicks. He couldn't say anything. The Corsican Brothers. 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? That this guy looks just like me and we should suggest it to Mark DiSalle. If they'd actually served. 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. Fights don't go down like that." How Did This Get Made's ad-free archives are available on Stitcher Premium. By their own photographer. We did not use CGI, that was only just starting to become popular, so we had to do everything optically. You see it all the time. A lot of it was based on the recollections of my friend Kurt Taylor, who I wrote the script with. 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. We liked the fact that we were able to do something different there. And that was the difference. 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. But Michael Dudikoff is like 6'2," and the problem was they wanted to film in Asia. That movie's terrible; I'm putting it straight to video. No. And they weren't returning phone calls. 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. Dux's trophy from the Bahamas event was at least partially made in the San Fernando Valley. At that point, it was to their advantage. I want to make this movie, but I want you to make this movie with a real movie star and that's Michael Dudikoff." But Mark had permission to use his name and to basically say that this was a real story. I don't really want to give this guy a platform for more publicity because that's what he's always looking for.". "He's written this Vietnam novel," my agent said, "that the novel's way too long and overwritten. 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. And on it he writes: To the Man Who Beat Me. And I was right: He came with [Bloodsport actor] Michel Qissi and two other guys. And Jean-Claude's phone began ringing off the hook. And Stallone felt the same way. 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." He was crushed. KUMITE! Bloodsport 4: The Dark Kumite. 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. He owes you two more movies! And he's in this movie called No Retreat, No Surrender. 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? By Earwolf, Paul Scheer, June Diane Raphael, and Jason Mantzoukas. And on it, they didn't even spell my name correctly. It was awarded the Drama-Logue Critics' Award for Direction and the Los Angeles Drama Critics' Award for Ensemble Performance. And it's kind of funny because those are superfluous elements to the film. 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. In exchange for dropping the suit, they offered me the rights to The Corsican Brothers, which I readily agreed to because, by then, Jean-Claude was trying to get a project set up with Moshe Diamant. The whole martial arts thing. Well later on it comes out in court and it's a picture that they took of me on that pamphlet. Tiger Tanaka, right? 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. So flash forward ten years and I still had this notion of doing a film about the classic era of French Foreign Legion movie. 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. It's a psychological issue that, believe it or not, happens more than you would think. He was actually going to come to that Bloodsport screening in North Hollywood [referenced in our conversation with Frank Dux]. IMDb is the world's most popular and authoritative source for movie, TV and celebrity content. Then he said, "It's my movie too and I want what's best for the film! We're 60 stories in the air, I'm not kidding you. You had mentioned that you and Sheldon reshaped that original script. How are you going to get enough guys to fight against Michael who are even going to match his size? This is like 1979 and he wanted to put together some kind of theatrical piece about Vietnam veterans. So my agent sent him Firebase and he responded very enthusiastically. And we loved each other at that point.Blake Harris: So you guys were really closeFrank Dux: Yeah, this'll show you how close we were and tie back to what I was saying right before. Actually, I should back up. I was afraid to taste it, because I'm allergic to shellfish. Use promo code BONKERS for a free month. You see my point? It was "Dukes." And then there was the famous meeting between Jean-Claude and Menahem on La Cienega Boulevard. Occasionally he'd come by the studio. Plus, two cousins duke it out . I think that's why people really love it. "Blake Harris: [laughter]Sheldon Lettich: I tried to make my case. He remembered that there were different shots. More Like This Unspooled with Paul Scheer & Amy Nicholson Listen up, film fans! Released in theaters 35 years ago, on Feb. 26, 1988, Bloodsport starred Van Damme as Frank Dux, a U.S. Army soldier who leaves the military to enter a fight-to-the-death martial arts tournament in . So on Lionheart, I went up where [Jean-Claude] was standing on the ledge of the building, doing what I had done that he was afraid to do in Hong Kong. I actually sent for and had custom uniforms made. 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. A simultaneously misleading and fitting title was certainly bestowed upon Bloodsport 4: The Dark Kumite, by far the worst installment of the franchise by a longshot. I mean, they put it on the shelf for two years. I had my then-fianc back in the United States get all the uniforms for them. Idc, even have a "Thor and Cap trade weapons moment" in Endgame with those two. 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. Two, actually. In fact we did the casting at my apartment. You know, Jean-Claude was totally overwhelmed when he got to work with Stallone on Expendables 2. Originally he'd planned for it to take place in present day, but I just thought that if you've got all of these fighters coming from all of the world like they did in Bloodsportand basically he was just trying to do a different version of Bloodsportthat it would make things more interesting if, for example, this took place in the 1920s because then it becomes really difficult for all these fighters from different parts of the world to journey to this contest.Blake Harris: So Frank was originally hired to write the script for The Quest?Sheldon Lettich: Frank, and they actually put another writer on with Frank. howdidthisgetmade@earwolf.com Episodes The Specialist LIVE! They always gave me one camera to kind of use and shoot it the way I'd like to see shot. And we did. In fact, we all went out to celebrate. No, never. Nowadays it's all kind of clich. Around this time, Leon Isaac Kennedy [from The White House All Stars] had been in in a Chuck Norris movie called Lone Wolf McQuade and there was talk about doing a Part Two. "This guy's never gonna make it," Menahem said. But then Menahem decided he didn't want to make the movie.Blake Harris: Why?Sheldon Lettich: In his words, I'm quoting, "Jean-Claude can't even play one character, how do you expect him to play two?" We even made a movie together, my 16mm short Firefight, which I gave him a major role in. So we changed the title to Stryker's Force and we gave the character's different names. Both of them wanted to be the cop.Blake Harris: That's so funny (though it makes sense).Sheldon Lettich: It just couldn't be worked out so the project fell by the wayside until they got Stallone and Wesley Snipes to be in it. We were on the set of Lionheart. He says, "I love you. 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