And then there's another story where he met Menahem and did it another way in Monaco. In fact, that was the script for Stallone that Jean-Claude gave me some dialogue help with.Blake Harris: Ah, right after Bloodsport. And so he told Menahem, "Sell it to me and I'll release it theatrically." So those are the three elements. He said, "Movies often come in cycles and there hasn't been a martial arts film in a while; I think that cycle is going to come back soon." It was horrible. To turn it into a TV series. It was a best of three, that's the way I recollect it. Because believe it or not, Robert DuBois truly was the man known for shooting the Man of Steel with a bullet in DC canon. 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. You try to get him to do a judo throw and he couldn't throw anybody. Because we don't want our readers to be misinformed, Black Belt has a policy of strict verification of all facts pertaining to any article. KUMITE! But Menahem had an in-house fixer named Michael J. Duthie, a really good editor, and he basically re-worked the movie. That's the thing. Everywhere else in my life I'm like a duck out of water, but put me in that arena and I just swim. 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? But Norris was the one, I think, who they declared as the winner. 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? Bloodsport: Directed by Newt Arnold. But I didn't sleep with a reporter beforehand and I certainly didn't break into my instructor's house and steal a sword. I think it was Jean-Claude finally convinced them to allow him to do it. Discovered by Player FM and our community copyright is owned by the publisher, not Player FM, and audio is streamed directly from their servers. Wow. Blake Harris: That story in the L.A. Times was pretty brutal. But it was interesting because he's fighting Mike Stone and Mike Stone had reportedly 91 wins. By Earwolf, Paul Scheer, June Diane Raphael, and Jason Mantzoukas. And Stallone felt the same way. He had a chance to read them. And I actually helped John do the casting. They wanted to stick with the Van Damme formula. We did not use CGI, that was only just starting to become popular, so we had to do everything optically. Blake Harris: You had mentioned earlier on that Bloodsport sat on the shelf for two yearsFrank Dux: Yeah, for two years it sat on the shelf. "Blake Harris: Can I guess that the novel was The Last Rainbow [by Frank Dux]?Sheldon Lettich: Yup. The Corsican Brothers. Wow.Frank Dux: And he knocked Chuck Norris to the ground several times. It would have been an expensive movie. And they did. They were doing a showing of Bloodsport in a theater in my old home town and I just happened to be visiting. If they'd actually served. And, at that lunch, Mark agreed and hired me to write the script for Bloodsport.Blake Harris: Frank mentioned he already had a script? So I said, "As long as you're going to have martial arts, why not get Frank?" Jean-Claude was a big Stallone fan?Sheldon Lettich: Still is. The 20 episodes of How Did This Get Made listed below offer a taste of the world that the hosts have built. And he was an idol of Jean-Claude's too.Blake Harris: Yeah? It made its budget back just the first weekend on the west coast. He would punch the bricks, breaking them apart. I assume you're referring to Jean-Claude. Following his appearances in the two preceding sequels, Daniel Bernhardt returns in the new role of Agent John Keller, who goes into prison . So I watched that happen and then I watched Victor Moore fight Chuck Norris.Blake Harris: Moore fought Bruce Lee and then Chuck Norris? At what point along the way were his fears diminished?Frank Dux: Well it was diminished when they were going to get rid of himJean-Claude doesn't realize how close he was to never having a careerand I took Mark off to the side and I said, "Look, I'm betting it all, Mark." 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. I turned over the programs from the fights that we had in those days. howdidthisgetmade@earwolf.com Episodes The Specialist LIVE! 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. We may receive a commission on purchases made from links. And Jean-Claude's phone began ringing off the hook. It was awarded the Drama-Logue Critics' Award for Direction and the Los Angeles Drama Critics' Award for Ensemble Performance. And I said, "Okay, after dailies, I'll meet you up there." It's hard to call the young Van Damme's performance "good" in any traditional sense of the word, but . And as soon as he was back in LA, he gave me a call and came over to my apartment in Park La Brea. Or was the movie developed in a totally different way?Frank Dux: Well I'll tell you what happened. We liked the fact that we were able to do something different there. Which kind of made Grant feel better about himself. 2. level 1. And were just digging this whole notion of Jean-Claude being a Legionnaire. So I wrote the script and gave it to a guy named Jacov Bresler. Especially when it comes to the military. And at one of these construction sites, there was a guy doing martial arts. 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. KUMITE! 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! So I go in to pitch my idea and his development executive, she was just flabbergasted when I showed her the magazine cover and told her about the idea. I remember him saying, "Michael Dudikoff is a movie star! 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. Like Bloodsport is one of his best movies ever but it still resulted in a great episode. But yes, Idris Elba did an amazing job being the reluctant leader. So I was curious why you think you were so skilled? (w/ Nicole Byer) 4/7/2023 More HDTGM all-star Nicole Byer (Grand Crew, Nailed It!) How Did This Get Made is a companion to the podcastHow Did This Get MadewithPaul Scheer, Jason MantzoukasandJuneDiane Raphaelwhich focuses on movies. We have a treatment and we started writing the script. He's also said it under oath by the way and identified me. And he did. 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? Dux aped the premise behind Enter the Dragon, then claimed it as true. Use promo code BONKERS for a free month. In fact, we explored Post Traumatic Stress in the play, but the term PTSD had not even been coined yet. Why was that the case?Sheldon Lettich: Because Menahem thought it was terrible. 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? I never accused the military of doing it. In 1993, Dux got beaten up by a guy in the first tournament, a guy by the name of "Nasty" Zane Frazier, who is known for knocking himself out when he and his opponent rolled out of the ring and hit the floor. Sheldon Lettich: We got some amazing reviews and it just turned into a little bit of a mini-phenomenon. It's a psychological issue that, believe it or not, happens more than you would think. 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. By this time we knew that Frank was full of baloney with a lot of the stuff that he was saying about his life. Told that the tournament was a secret, he said: "We would know. One of the key sequences in the film finds Task Force X sent to free Rick Flag from an enemy camp. A good example of that is Bloodsport. So I climbed up on the ledge with him. Start Free Trial. Are you kidding me? I said, "Real Kumite fighters, we fight here. He's a real talent when it comes to that. Poison! There were a number of people who really liked it. But the fights in the story were all real. In fact, Universal had some problems with what we did there because we did not want it to be a revenge movie. At that point, it was to their advantage. He had an answering machine at the time that had a limit of, like, 50 messages. And the two of them, they didn't talk about it, but they'd basically bicker through their agents because neither one wanted to be the criminal who gets killed at the end. 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. What follows is a conversation with Frank Dux, who was the real-life inspiration behind the movie Bloodsport. This thing, it had legs, and started traveling around the world (London, Australia, etc. However, speaking of the UFC, Frank Dux does have a tangential connection to the UFC. What is he, a walking dictionary of a secret society? And Menahem was dead set against it.Blake Harris: Why?Sheldon Lettich: [Laughing at the memory] His word for Jean-Claude was "poison." I was afraid to taste it, because I'm allergic to shellfish. It was a no-budget. And on it, they didn't even spell my name correctly. He remembered that there were different shots. 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. In 1980, Frank Dux first came into the public eye via an article in the November issue of Black Belt magazine. So he re-cut the fights, Michael restructured the movie and when we saw the next cut (which was quite a while later), the movie really worked. Dux said the military ordered his record sabotaged to discredit him. Which was Mike's move. Then we started meeting on a regular basis over at the VA hospital in Westwood. And I just want to end it right now." And what really grabbed Sheldon's attention was the fights.Blake Harris: So what happened with the script? Plus the guy was just an idol of mine. 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. But Menahem said, "No, I'm not gonna release it in theaters. And interestingly enough, it was only after Jean-Claude did that to Sheldon that he testified on my behalf in the case for The Quest.Blake Harris: I understand. And the two of them wrote this first draft. That was the real Sheldon Lettich. And it misrepresents my responses. It was offered to him and Seagal. If he doesn't have any use for people, he throws them to the side. DuBois' Bloodsport first appeared in Superman Vol 2 #4 by John Byrne back in 1987. Now, Frank did contribute a number of ideas to the Bloodsport script, but he claimed these were "life events" that actually happened to him, not fiction. So Frank and I go to a theater and we were both blown away by Jean-Claude. 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. And just a few more questions. So I thought that it was a good idea to keep my options open. So I started doing a Howard Cosell imitation and that's where I came up with the term Bloodsport. Sheldon wrote Legionnaire and was supposed to direct it, but then Jean-Claude got someone else. And he just started laughing and he says, "Frank, you're crazy. JCVD RE-EDITED THE MOVIE HIMSELF TO GET IT . Well, here's the reality of the situation. The Robert DuBois version of Bloodsport made his live-action debut in the television series Supergirl, played by David St. Louis. Bloodsport was produced by Cannon Films and released by Warner Bros. on 26 February 1988. Or actually, a better question: how did Bloodsport first come together?Sheldon Lettich: [producer] Mark DiSalle invited me to lunch. And I was right: He came with [Bloodsport actor] Michel Qissi and two other guys. And if somebody tells me they were in Vietnam, and in the Marine Corps, I'll believe them. Then all of the sudden I got hit in the face with a Black Dragon shirt, and that's how I became the youngest Black Dragon in the history of the Black Dragons.Blake Harris: That's unbelievable. Was Sheldon the first person you shared it with?Frank Dux: Well, it was supposed to be a series. "But I will say this," Lettich continued. 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. He was pure, he didn't do drugs. I think Jean-Claude and I have done just fine without 'riding his coattails,' haven't we?". They'll cover Frank Dux being a real man, Van Damme's soft baby buns, blindfolded tea training, the not so secret illegal Kumite martial-arts tournament, Ray Jackson, and much more. Because you didn't do it in Hong Kong." 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." Especially when you believe that person is your friend.Frank Dux: Exactly. I did some research and realized I wanted to do a French Foreign Legion movie. And that's how I ended up co-writing Rambo III with him. Double Impact was financed, mostly, through pre-sales and, as it was structured, each of those companies also own a piece of the movie. So to compensate, they put me in these metal boots. And of course he says he did (but he didn't). 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. The official budget's $1.2 million but I was told that we did that filmbelow the linefor under half a million bucks. 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. 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