A few months ago, I happily shared the news that Jeff Speakman would make his acting return in a feature adaptation of the Joe Lansdale novel Lost Echoes. Now, it looks like Jean-Claude Van Damme is getting in on the action too.
Deadline is reporting that the Muscles from Brussels is set to team up with director Jeremy Zag for the crime-martial arts film Katana. Van Damme will play a former champion fighter who has left his dark past behind him. But when the yakuza kidnap his daughter, he’s forced to fight one last time.
Jean-Claude Van Damme Has One More Fight in Him
Zag is doing double duty as both writer and director, but most of his work seems to be as a producer in animation. I’m not familiar with his work, and his only directing credits are in animation, which frankly makes me nervous. But he’s pitching Katana as a mash-up of Bloodsport, Taken, and John Wick. It’s being pitched to international distributors ahead of the American Film Market next week, and is set to begin filming in April in Japan, France, and L.A.
Zag says Van Damme inspired him to step into a dojo 30 years ago and that he’s been a kyokushin practitioner ever since. And if that’s true, it’s pretty cool, and it makes me a little more interested in this than if it were just another random direct-to-video actioner that Van Damme seems to have been making for the last 30 years.
I can’t really say Van Damme inspired me to start doing martial arts. That would probably be Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris, but if I had to pick, Van Damme is probably my favorite of the VHS-era strikers. His on-screen fights are just untouchable as far as I’m concerned. So, from that perspective, I can appreciate how cool it would be to have the opportunity Zag has right now.
But his lack of experience as a director and with live action makes me a little leery, and something he is quoted as saying in the Deadline article also gives me pause:
“I want to bring together the power of Bloodsport, the urgency of Taken and the energy of John Wick in a deeply human story: a father entering Japan’s criminal underworld to save his daughter.”
Look, that all sounds good on paper, but let’s be honest: this story has been done a million times in this subgenre alone. Making a “deeply human story” sounds great and all, and don’t get me wrong, action with no heart can be flat and boring. But I think sometimes these guys get out over their skis just a bit with their ambitions, and what is supposed to be “deeply human” ends up being plain ol’ melodrama.
I don’t know, man. Just give me something fun. Give me something like Bloodsport. Make sure the choreography is solid. Don’t use CGI blood. Keep it grounded and gritty, but don’t go overboard with trying to make it feel realistic. Make sure the guys he fights have some screen presence and are unique and not just a bunch of MMA goons.
What gives me hope is that Van Damme is the reason this guy started Kyokushin. So I hope he tries to keep those early movies that inspired him in mind and doesn’t get too artsy fartsy with it. Give me a Van Damme fight that makes me want to rewind the damn tape until it wears out.
What about you? If you could show Zag one Van Damme movie and say, “Give me some of that,” which one would it be? Tell us down in the comments with your Disqus account!
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