Jean Claude Van Damme Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Van Damme Teams Up with Vinnie Jones to Kick Some Drug-Dealin' Arse
Filed under: Action », Casting »
They say the jobs dry up for women once they get a little older, and the same can definitely be said for action stars -- especially when they want more cred (unless we're talking Sly Stallone). I cheered for Jean Claude Van Damme when he wanted to take his career in a new direction after the mass appeal of JCVD, and rued the thought of him returning to Universal Soldier, but I imagine there aren't many cinematic opportunities for an aged Muscles from Brussels. But he's still got the action.The Hollywood Reporter posts that Van Damme is teaming up with Vinnie Jones for a new action flick called Weapon. The pair will play rival assassins who form an uneasy alliance "to take down the head of a drug cartel, backed by the DEA." Jones is the master sharpshooter while Van Damme is the man who is skilled with a
The film will jump into production this August in Vancouver, and hopefully it's more than good-for-video B-fare. Jean Claude has had his messes, but JCVD was wonderful, and he definitely showed that he has a little more to him than most of his gigs relay. Then again, the snarky side of me just put "My Lovin'" into my head.
Is JCVD never gonna get it?
Van Damme Returns to Universal Soldier ... So Much for Moving On!
Filed under: Action », Casting », Remakes and Sequels »
What. The. Frak?Aside from still dying to see JCVD, I've been quite proud of Jean Claude Van Damme -- seemingly wrenching himself out of the enjoyable, but not-so-good dreck of his past. He's kept talking about moving on, but now he's skyrocketing backwards. So much for that deeper characters and respect thing.
MTV reports that Van Damme has signed on for the third installment of Universal Soldier, which has been rumored for a while. "I'm just going to do 10 days. I told them, guys bring in Dolph! They said there's no more value [to cast him]. I said, 'it will have value with me!'" That sounds like trying to cash in on Jean Claude's newly reinvigorated fame while the actor ignores his newfound goals. According to the Muscles from Brussels, Peter Hyams has signed on to be the DP, Simon Fellows is directing, and the plot will deal with "something in the past."
Obviously, I'm not pleased with the news. But what say you? Is JCVD hurting his future with this? Should he return to Universal Soldier, or should he have kept it in the past?
News Bites: Full Love, Hollywood Stars, and More!
Filed under: Comedy », Drama », Horror », Music & Musicals », Awards », Deals », Fandom », Home Entertainment »
With J.C.V.D. charming audiences everywhere and making the unlucky of us foam at the mouth to see it, the big question has become: Would this be the start of a great career twist, or a charming, but fleeting, aberration for Jean Claude Van Damme? Rather than taking it step by step, the dude has jumped head first into the deep end -- next up will be Van Damme's labor of love, Full Love, which he wrote, produced, directed, and stars in. It's supposed to be a personal story, but is currently all hush-hush. But now we've at least got a peek inside, courtesy of Twitch. They've posted five images from the film, including the thumbnail to the right. It doesn't show much, but one thing that's definitely not there -- JCVD splits.Turning from possible success to definite success -- CNN reports that Tim Robbins has nabbed himself a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame. In the ceremony last week, the actor said: "I used to take the bus from here to Burbank to go to work. When the bus was late, I would walk up and down and throw my cigarettes down. Now I have the honor of having this done to my star."
Meanwhile, if you've dug the tunes coming out of Repo! The Genetic Opera, Horror-Movies.ca reports that the film's soundtrack will be up for free for one day only, today the 13th, on the flick's official website. Go now!
And one last nibblet: Variety reports that Mark Waters, director of films like The House of Yes, Mean Girls, and The Spiderwick Chronicles, is heading to TV to helm the pilot Eva Adams. Adapted from the Argentinian telenova Lalola, the series will follow a womanizer who gets turned into a woman and must endure what he used to dole out.
Cinematical's Friday Night Double Feature: The Muscle From Brussels
Filed under: Action », Sports », Home Entertainment », Trailers and Clips », Friday Night Double Feature »
Long ago, before the problems with drugs and fights at strip clubs, Jean Claude Van Damme ripped himself out of the fighting world, oiled up his flesh, and became America's Muscles from Brussels. At first, the process was slow and simple -- breaking into the world of film as "Gay Karate Man" in Monaco Forever, being a background performer in Rue barbare, and then getting some uncredited English work as a spectator in that 1984 classic, Breakin'.
But then came No Retreat, No Surrender, where he played a Russian baddie opposite General Hospital and Guiding Light star Kurt McKinney, and the rest was history. He did all he could do in the action realm -- kickboxing revenge, jail, video game flicks, soldier, and even cracking walnuts with his butt.
These days, he's whipped up an insane amount of positive buzz with JCVD and reinvigorated his career. But it all had to start somewhere. As a well-oiled, good-guy ode to that sexy, muscled Belgian, I give you: Bloodsport and Kickboxer.
*Note: In the interest of good matches, I'm leaving off my all-time favorite Van Damme flick, Cyborg, to get its love another day. Gibson will have his moment to shine!
Is It Time to Give JCVD Some Respect?
Filed under: Action », Comedy », Fandom », Newsstand »
R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Find out what it means to me. R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Take care, JCVD!Okay, so I changed part of Aretha Franklin's improvised chorus, but it fits! Dear Jean-Claude Van Damme spoke to MTV while in Cannes, and he said: "I'm a brand name. I'm not just a guy. I think I'm ready to be decent. I'm hungry to make movies, but movies with deeper characters. I want respect. I want to believe in myself." (Tony Robbins might be getting some big-muscle competition soon, at this rate!)
It seems that this desire comes from his realization, after his 37th movie, that "Acting is not acting if you act. You have to tell the truth..." I would argue that you have to act to "tell the truth," but at least the guy is trying to grow. So now he's got JCVD on the way (which premiered at Cannes), and he hopes this is the start of better choices for his career.
Have any of you seen it? Is his self-mocking film a step towards a more solid career? Van Damme has been in lots of crap, but I'm inclined to believe that if Arnie can do it, he can. Or, maybe that ship has sailed.
Van Damme Gets Serious About His Career
Filed under: Action », Comedy »
It is true. The world will soon get some J.C.V.D. Back in October, I showed you a clip from the supposed biopic about the actor. There were a bunch of guys in tank tops, getting ready to audition for the part of Jean Claude Van Damme, until the man himself showed up demanding the role. In a new interview with MTV, Jean Claude says that the flick is, indeed, heading to Cannes, and it's making him rethink his career a little as well.As Van Damme describes it, the movie is about a man in the U.S. who has been arrested a lot, and: "Being drunk, my [character's] life was from success to failure. And this guy is now leaving the States to refresh himself, to go back to Brussels to see his parents. He's got no money and he's looking for any type of movie to pay his lawyers for child custody. And then he shows up in a post office where a heist is happening, and people think I'm part of it. And then it becomes very Dog Day Afternoon." He says it's the best film he's ever done. More than Cyborg, Bloodsport, and Kickboxer? I'll believe it when I see it!
Now, aside from the upcoming action film The Shepherd: Border Patrol, he's looking to make films he'll be happy about and be proud of. That means saying no to flicks like Rush Hour 3 and Street Fighter, and saying yes to Full Love. He's not saying what it's about, but it will certainly be a labor of love at the very least -- Van Damme will not only finance the film, but direct it as well. My god, is Jean Claude going romantic on us? Stay tuned!
Cinematical's Seven Sexy Sporting Studs
Filed under: Sports », Fandom », Cinematical Seven »
I must have had too many cups of coffee when I agreed to take on a Cinematical Seven covering the hunks of sports films. (Erik had the easy job, picking the Hottest Sports Girls.) Trying to pick the studs is like having hundreds of 4-star, wonderful movies thrown on your desk and being asked to pick the 7 best. Yeah, right! No problem! To make the task easier, I decided to pick a range of sports, and never double up on one particular type. That cut out a whole slew of possibilities, and what I came up with is what you see below.
What have I learned from picking the Seven Sexy Sporting Studs from cinema? The best of the best (pun intended) were in the '80s and '90s. I also learned that you should never share the list with a friend beforehand -- they'll remind you who you're forgetting, and that's why you'll find one tie down below. Enjoy!
The Eight Men Out Team
The only thing I knew when I took on this assignment was that Eight Men Out was going to be featured. Bull Durham is great and all, but this is the baseball movie. It's John Sayles, and it has the best baseball team to ever make it on the screen. They might have let their morals loosen a little, but they still kept their looks. Foolishly, I tried to pick between John Cusack, Charlie Sheen, D.B. Sweeney, and David Strathairn. Forget that! I'm taking the easy way out. Cusack's Buck Weaver was super cute as a "future jailbird," Charlie was always tasty in those days, and it's beyond me why women weren't falling all over David Strathairn the minute he jumped into film with Return of the Secaucus Seven, or any of the bigger movies that were soon to come. And Sweeney was cute, too, in that dorky way.
The Muscles from Brussels: The Biopic -- Starring: Jean Claude Van Damme
Filed under: Action », Comedy », Casting », Trailers and Clips »
Jean Claude Van Damme -- almost-undefeated fighter-turned-action movie star, who can bring intricate, split inducing bondage structures down with the mere force of his thighs -- is heading into the world of biopics, or so a new short floating on the web will have us think. Some have said it's just a spoof short film, but some, like JoBlo, say: "We're told this is a 'pre-sell' teaser for Cannes, and that the movie itself is in production with Luc Besson's company." I imagine it's more like that Caligula short I posted about many months ago, but the old Van Damme fan in me kind of wishes this is real.The clip in question is a long short that shows a disparate collection of dudes in tank tops who have come together to try out for the lead in an upcoming JCVD biopic -- some have eaten way too many Twinkies to ever pull it off, while some seem to have the requisite buffness. Just as the casting session is about to get started, good ol' Jean Claude himself walks in, pretty ticked that he wasn't contacted -- and by "ticked," I mean he says he is, but he doesn't, physically, look too concerned. Once he finds out the plot he decides that, of course, he should play himself.
At the very least, it's an amusing, self-deprecating stint for a guy who is pretty much ignored these days in the realms of the action world. (Although man, I still love me some Cyborg.) At the most, this could be a great pearl to top off Van Damme's career -- a biting, too-honest, self-referential flick to remind us why we all know his name in the first place.
Script Review for Justin Marks' 'Street Fighter' Pops Up
Filed under: Action », Remakes and Sequels », Games and Game Movies »
If you're at all familiar with the original 1994 Street Fighter film, then you might consider it a guilty pleasure or as the tragic final credit of the distinguished actor Raul Julia. Either way it's safe to say it was no masterpiece. Back in October, Variety had reported that Hyde Park Entertainment was putting together a remake with Justin Marks (Voltron) on board to pen the script. Now, Latino Review has a script review for the 114 page treatment. This time around, Marks has decided to put the focus of the story on Chun -Li. The plot follows Li in her search for revenge for the murder of her father. Other characters mentioned in the review were head baddie Bison, Balrog, and Vega -- but none of the other Street Fighter characters were included, so it seems that it's going to be a one-woman show.There hasn't been much to say about the production since some strange casting rumors had surfaced that Jessica Biel was being considered for the lead. But despite her similarities when it comes to thigh muscularity, she is a bizarre choice for the part. Plus, I doubt there is a shortage of Asian actresses who could tackle the part. If Latino Review's source can be trusted, the film promises to be a vast improvement over the Jean-Claude Van Damme cheese-fest, with plenty of hard-core Hong Kong style action. Now, if Hyde Park and Capcom can only figure out their casting problems, they might be on to something.
Van Damme To Star in (Intentionally) Horrifying Film
Filed under: Action », Horror », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Thrillers », Scripts », Oscar Watch »
It's fascinating to me that I used to live in a world where the films of Jean-Claude Van Damme were popular. At his peak, Jean-Claude was pocketing over 5 million dollars a movie! And them's 1994 dollars! Doesn't that boggle the mind? I mean, Van Damme made a movie in which a Cajun-accented Wilford Brimley rode in slow-motion on horseback with a bow and arrow! If I had to pinpoint the moment when JCVD's career officially died, I'd say it was around the time he made that movie with Dennis Rodman, but believe it or not, he's kept his "acting" career alive ever since. He's had a pretty steady run of straight-to-DVD films playing characters with names like Edward "The Torch" Garrotte. I've always thought "The Muscles from Brussels" could make a decent comeback if he'd only let us know that he's in on the joke. Well, the dude is branching out a bit, but not in the way I'd hoped. He is attempting a horror movie.
Now, you could argue that all of Van Damme's movies have been horrifying in one way or another, but this is said to be his first supernatural thriller. It is called Holy Brood, and according to the film's writer Sheldon Lettich, it "deals with the occult and the supernatural." Lettich calls it a cross between The Exorcist and The X-Files, but "what's different is that it will have Van Damme instead of Father Karras, or Scully and Mulder." In other words, instead of respected actors, it will star a Razzie Award winner who can do the splits. For the three of you who give a Van Damme about Holy Brood, know that you'll have to wait for him to finish production on something called The Smashing Machine first. Yes, The Smashing Machine. By the way, if you've never seen this clip of Van Damme dancing in Kickboxer, I don't think it's overstating things to say that it will forever change your life.
Peter Jackson Says Spielberg's 'Tintin' is Done Filming, but...
Interracial Harmony: 'Ninja Assassin' vs. 'Blind Side'
Spin-ematical: New on DVD for 11/24_thumbnail.jpg)
Exclusive 'Nine' Poster Premiere!
Exclusive: Title Track for 'The Road' Soundtrack
_thumbnail.jpg)
