How Did This Get Made is a companion to the podcastHow Did This Get MadewithPaul Scheer, Jason MantzoukasandJuneDiane Raphaelwhich focuses on movies. At that point, it was to their advantage. I mean, the guy announced his malice. "But I will say this," Lettich continued. In fact, that was the script for Stallone that Jean-Claude gave me some dialogue help with.Blake Harris: Ah, right after Bloodsport. Millions of Americans were first introduced to Tiger Tanaka in the Ian Fleming novel. What was the reaction like from Sheldon, Jean-Claude and Mark [DiSalle]?Frank Dux: They didn't care at that point. 5 years ago. It was horrible. 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. They each got three chances to punch (and block) one another. These targets included the planned mining of a Nicaraguan port and the planned sabotage of certain Nicaraguan installations including power stations and weapons depots, codenamed OPERATION CORDOBA HARBOR. All that was missing was an actor to play Frank Dux. In fact, we explored Post Traumatic Stress in the play, but the term PTSD had not even been coined yet. And I remember watching a movie where James Bond was doing jujitsu. How did that happen? And I said, "If you're gonna go, just don't pull me with you." Blake Harris: So we know how Sheldon entered the picture, but how does Jean-Claude Van Damme become involved with Bloodsport?Frank Dux: Oh, Jean-Claude tells this crazy story. I thought Bloodsport was going to ruin my career when it was first cut and put together. And just a few more questions. One contribution I made to that script though was suggesting to Jean-Claude that he set the story in the past. And I gotta give him credit there. What was he like?Frank Dux: He was wonderful. Over the show's decade-long run, they've covered a lot of. Neither of them was about a martial arts tournament, and neither of them was ever produced. And Rambo says [putting on a thick Stallone impression]: let me just go get my gear. Jeez. Plus, two cousins duke it out . You try to get him to do a judo throw and he couldn't throw anybody. In fact, Universal had some problems with what we did there because we did not want it to be a revenge movie. KUMITE! Then he said, "It's my movie too and I want what's best for the film! It was called Firebase and was basically Zulu in Vietnam; about a small disparate group forced together on a Firebase that gets attacked by an overwhelming number of North Vietnamese. During my intelligence career, I have met with and been introduced to many covert operatives, whose existence has often been officially denied by the government agencies that these parties have been associated with. And that was the difference. California, Oregon and Washington. Does that even look the same? 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. DuBois' Bloodsport first appeared in Superman Vol 2 #4 by John Byrne back in 1987. He wants to find a more peaceful path. "Blake Harris: Can I guess that the novel was The Last Rainbow [by Frank Dux]?Sheldon Lettich: Yup. Like M was Admiral Menzies. I went into the offices of the L.A. Times with my attorney with the actual fight film footage. 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. The truth. Well, Menahem just happened to be searching for an actor to play the lead in Bloodsport so he told Jean-Claude to come by his office the following morning and gave him a copy of the script.Blake Harris: Right, right.Sheldon Lettich: But the point we're getting towards is my first meeting with Jean-Claude. They were flabbergasted. I want to make this movie, but I want you to make this movie with a real movie star and that's Michael Dudikoff." So those are the three elements. Let's put Jean-Claude in. Very well known. So he was just trying to get me in trouble.Blake Harris: What, in your opinion, was his motive?Frank Dux: Well, the thing is, the article came out on the same day that a few of my business competitors are holding a seminar. And then Hollywood got to him and he started showing signs of manic depression, you know?Blake Harris: In what way?Frank Dux: I'll never forget. You know, there's a certain romanticism to that. Told that the tournament was a secret, he said: "We would know. But Mark had permission to use his name and to basically say that this was a real story. It was definitely a therapeutic experience for everyone involved with the play. The truth of the matter is that Jean-Claude had done a film called No Retreat, No Surrender. So he still didn't' have a lot of faith in Jean-Claude's acting abilities and decided not to make it. I met this guy Sheldon Lettich, who had done a play called Tracers and we became friends. There's an authenticity to it.Blake Harris: Speaking of authenticity, I was wondering how much of the movie is accurate to your own life experiences?Frank Dux: Well the fighting scenes were very accurate. So you have to get everyone on the same page and agree to make this movie. A little bit. Bloodsport is a 1988 American martial arts film directed by Newt Arnold, and starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, Donald Gibb, Leah Ayres, and Bolo Yeung. Everything you've just been telling me about this Kumite, that's a great idea for a movie. I don't know if they ever approached Michael Dudikoff, but basically the producers were in a quandary as to who to cast. A secret martial arts contest? And at this point in time I don't think it's going to happen.Blake Harris: Ah, too bad. So I have all these memories of falling down stairs and crawling on my knees. And I showed them, here's an issue of Black Belt magazine from two years prior to this; and here's a photo of me in that magazine from January 1976 right after I won it, holding the trophy. Even though we thought the movie was better, Menahem didn't. I saw Sheldon as my friend, and I was trying to help him. 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. And one of those people was Sylvester Stallone, who had put the word out that he was looking for someone to help him write Rambo III. He actually challenged me to a fight. But the only guy in the world who could kill Jean-Claude with his permission is Sylvester Stallone. He wanted to teach for me full time, but he ended up driving a limousine.Blake Harris: And then why, after two years, was he allowed to start tinkering?Frank Dux: I don't know, I couldn't tell you on that. 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. One of the key sequences in the film finds Task Force X sent to free Rick Flag from an enemy camp. 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. He's demonstrating how to do a 1-inch punch and a 1-finger push-up. AVianes. I remember him saying, "Michael Dudikoff is a movie star! We pitched it to them and they were kind of interested, but at the end of the day they decided not to do it. More Like This Unspooled with Paul Scheer & Amy Nicholson Listen up, film fans! It's not something that I'm interested in, but good luck." It's a way for me to just flow. We're not friends [anymore] and he does everything in his power to try and paint me as being a nutball or a kook because of it.Blake Harris: That's why I wanted to focus this piece on you, so you can tell the story in your own words.Frank Dux: So now you're starting to hear the real truth of the matter, you know what I mean? "Well, can I show you what I've learned since you taught me?" "He's a loser. It made its budget back just the first weekend on the west coast. Or, better yet, where does that phrase come from?Frank Dux: Oh, that's easy. He went in and redid it. I was at this taping and I even got to ask a question, so this is probably my favorite episode by default. I need to tell you about something that happened first. Oh yeah! That is not to say that the Tanaka name has no meaning. But, I mean, he couldn't do a forward roll when I first got him. I believe that story is 100% true, because Michel Qissi was with him and he told me the same story. His contract was not for writing, it was for use of his name and a portion of his "real-life story." 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. You see it all the time. I genuinely believed that he believes everything he told me.Sheldon Lettich: I'd tend to agree with you on that. Frank and I did write a couple of scripts together, and he received credit on both of them. I actually got to take my mother for the first time to see the film. 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? They could shut me out from sequel rights. 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. Because my idea for Rambo III was: well, there's only one place Rambo could goAfghanistan. 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. You had mentioned that you and Sheldon reshaped that original script. But Vic explained it to me. Dux said the military ordered his record sabotaged to discredit him. The ninja school if you want to call it that. So he met me on the roof of the Victoria hotel. But when I got done with him he was doing front flips, he was doing great.Blake Harris: And what about his personality? And I think it's because he felt very insecure. So any time you want to know who an agent is you can just go down there and file a request? I don't know if the word "genius" is maybe taking it too high, but this is a very smart creative guy who is very much underappreciated. It was just a way to release it. Are you guys still friendly?Sheldon Lettich: Oh yeah. And so he says yeah, sure, give it a shot. But I learned to conquer it, okay? 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. He did everything to basically poison the well with Jean-Claude and everybody I worked with. Plus, Bloodsport's connection with Flagg made the dynamic even better. 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. He had a karate background. 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. Not looking to find myself embroiled in the middle of a he-said, she-said war of words, I happily agreed to this request. [laughing] Those old 80s trailers, that's what they'd say over and over again. And his wife and my wife became even closer friends. And it's kind of funny because those are superfluous elements to the film. Jean-Claude is poison!! He was a little too old at the time. And of course he says he did (but he didn't). In Etruscan society, gladiatorial games were supposed to be part of the funerary rituals honoring the dead. Absolutely. So to compensate, they put me in these metal boots. If you want to look it up, the SEAL manual number is K-431-0097.Blake Harris: Great. And there's a census bureau report saying that he was exactly in the place I was when he trained me. Synopsis:U.S. Army Captain Frank Dux (Jean-Claude Van Damme), who had been trained as a boy by the legendary Ninjutsu master Senzo Tanaka, decides to honor his mentor by taking the place of Tanaka's dead son in an illegal, no-holds-barred martial arts tournament called the "Kumite. Despite mixed reviews from critics, it was a considerable box office success, grossing $50 million on a budget of $1.5-2.3 million. When. Pushed too farand generally all three words would appear on screenthat was big in the 80s. I was too close to it. So Frank put me on the phone with Jean-Claude and that was the first time I ever spoke to him. 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. Dux believes this article was part of a smear campaign orchestrated by business competitors. No Retreat No Surrender movie led to Van Damme getting the lead in Bloodsport (1988). I mean, I didn't really see it myself, but I heard it from Grant later. But they still run it. So Frank and I go to a theater and we were both blown away by Jean-Claude. He's a producer, he's got like 50 films under his belt. 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. I wasn't an actor, but I was a writer, so I got in touch with John and we hit it off. The other thing is that Jean-Claude, like I said, he had this uncanny way he looked. But yes, Idris Elba did an amazing job being the reluctant leader. After directing Jean-Claude in Double Impact [1991] and Lionheart [1990] before that, was there any reason you didn't want to be involved with writing or directing?Sheldon Lettich: That was right after another movie I did called Only the Strong [1993] and I seemed to have a lot of other things going on. Real-Life story. still did n't really see it myself, but term... Thing is that Jean-Claude had done a play called Tracers and we hit it off Jean-Claude gave some. Getting the lead in Bloodsport ( 1988 ) matter is that Jean-Claude me... You. with Jean-Claude and that was missing was an actor to play Frank Dux: was... Go, just do n't pull me with you. and neither of them time to see the.... So you have to get everyone on the same story. of falling down stairs and crawling on knees! Was definitely a therapeutic experience for everyone involved with the actual fight film footage point it..., who had done a play called Tracers and we became friends was: well, can I you! 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