The Van Damme Chronicles
The British version of Impact magazine should have been called Bullseye. Since the French magazine came first and never sought to have an English edition, the founder of U.K. Impact should have only stolen the logo. The only excuse that I can think of is that Bulleye was the name of an English game show about darts. As for Jean-Claude Van Damme, his birth name is Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg, but maybe it would have been easier for him if his stage name was simply Jean Van Damme. Then it would have been easier to advertise JVD DVDs or even have him advertising JVC cameras.
In the June 1989 issue (No. 21) of French Impact, the man who could have been called Sean Van Damme - yes, as in Shawn Van Damme - spoke of his early years: “I suffered a lot when I arrived in Los Angeles. I slept in my car for two weeks.... As I am quite careful, I had the money from the gym that I had sold to the bank in Brussels. In case of a major problem, I had enough to come back. In Los Angeles, I did all sorts of small jobs like limousine driver, bouncer in a nightclub. I also gave Karate lessons. This period was a real nightmare for me. I had given myself five years to succeed. Since I was 12/13, the age at which I started Karate demonstrations, I have been nourished by cinema.”
Talking about the USA: “It's been seven years now since I moved there. At the beginning, everything was very difficult. I didn't know anyone. I didn't speak English, except to say "yes, no, I'm hungry" Like the Italians, I spoke a lot with my hands.”
Before Los Angeles: “My father had read in a newspaper the announcement of the Milan film market, MIFED. But when I got there, I didn't have the possibility of getting a badge to access the production houses. At the door, the guards asked me: "Who are you?" I told them that I was an actor, that I needed to meet some people. They told me it was impossible to get in. However, a distributor friend gave me his accreditation on the last day of the market. He was leaving. Inside, I gave my business card to everyone. To the Japanese, Chinese, Americans, Europeans... In return, I got 200 more business cards. But once I got to Los Angeles, when I made phone calls (because these people had all told me: "In the United States, call me"), they maintained that they no longer remembered my name. They told me to go to hell. All of them. In the United States, when a person gives you his card, it means absolutely nothing. In Belgium, you would have had a job at the same time!”
After MIFED: “I flew to Hong Kong. First, for a modeling job. I tried to meet Raymond Chow of Golden Harvest, a producer, without success. However, I saw Jacky Chan to whom I showed some of my photos. By hitting my hand, he suggested a future collaboration. After the release of Bloodsport, Raymond Chow, also owner of the theaters in which the film was scheduled, came to Los Angeles. In Hong Kong, Bloodsport beat The Running Man at the box office. "Who is this Jean-Claude Van Damme? I've never met him before," complained Raymond Chow. And he wanted to sign me to a six-picture contract!”
The meeting with Menahem Golan of Cannon Pictures: “It was by chance that I met him for the first time in a restaurant. I gave him a little demonstration of my possibilities. He gave me his card so that I could come and see him the next day at his office. There, the guard created some problems for me before calling Golan's secretary. From the waiting room, I could hear him screaming. I waited all day. Once in his office, I expressed myself. Giving him photos that he barely looked at, I explained to him how I was and how much I had suffered. I almost cried. Menahem Golan saw the sincerity in my eyes. And then I stripped to the waist and kicked him a few times over the head. He then threw the script of Bloodsport in front of me: "Next week in Hong Kong!" Unbelievable!”
After everything was said and done: “Menahem Golan intended it for video because it was so bad. For a year, Bloodsport sat in the cans. The editor had done a terrible job. In addition, the direction was bad, the story was useless and the music inaudible. I got Golan to re-edit the film, especially the fight scenes. For weeks, from seven in the morning to seven in the evening, I reviewed all these sequences. Then, I managed to convince Golan to attend a new screening of the film. And it was thanks to a gap in the programming that Cannon released it. Without any advertising. It brought in forty million dollars in the United States. Menahem Golan apologized for not having believed in me. "I feel like we're going to do business together," he added.”
Transatlantic comparison: “The Americans like me. They don't mind if a Belgian succeeds in the United States. On the other hand, my compatriots send me reviews from morning to night. According to them, Bloodsport is a disgusting, super-stupid film!”
What was next for Van Damme after the first half of 1989: “There is Wrong Bet which is a remake of Hard Times with Charles Bronson. Wrong Bet tells the adventures of a French immigrant who arrives in New York. His brother dies in hospital and, to save his wife from poverty, he agrees to fight in the streets. The Corsican Brothers is based on a novel by Alexandre Dumas. Two twin brothers who have not seen each other for 21 years reunite to avenge their family massacred by the Mafia. I will soon be shooting for Pathé Europa, the company that bought Cannon.”
In the August 1990 issue (No. 28) of Impact, Van Damme claimed: “Michael Douglas will produce three of my next films. I receive 30 to 40 scripts per week. And I have my own ideas. Fox, Warner, MGM are soliciting me.”
Universal Soldier was currently being written with Dolph Lundgren already attached to star. Originally, Double Impact was going to be directed by Christopher Cain (who directed Young Guns and would later direct The Next Karate Kid starring Hilary Swank). Speaking about the Douglas-produced Double Impact, Van Damme said: “I play two characters: a kind of super secret agent fighting against the Chinese Triads, and his brother, a traditional Englishman.”
In the February 1991 issue (No. 31) of Impact, Van Damme spoke about Bloodsport (made in 1986 yet released in 1988): “Menahem Golan gave me three parking spaces and the entire fourth floor of the Cannon building in Los Angeles.”
Van Damme tells a more elaborate version of an earlier story: “I was in a restaurant with Golan's friends when Menahem arrived, surrounded by his people. I recognized him and walked up to him: “Hey, Menahem! Jean-Claude! Do you remember me? I sent you sent several photos!” And he looked at me like I was crazy. That's when I kicked him over the head. He looked terrified. He then gave me his card and said “Contact me.” The next day, I drove to Cannon. At the reception, I told people that I had dinner with Menahem Golan the day before and that I had to meet him before flying to Paris that evening. I hung around for five hours. Menahem Golan was constantly on the phone. I heard him shouting “No, no deal." I then knew that this guy knew how to negotiate, that I now had to sell myself like a commodity. When I finally saw him, I told him that I'll do anything to shoot a movie. I was on the verge of tears. I took off my T-shirt to show him my muscles, I did the splits on his desk. "Look, I'm still very young, I have a thirst for cinema and I'm really not very expensive. I can do what this guy or that guy does in your movies. Please give me a chance." I was only pleading for a small role and he gave me the lead role in Bloodsport.”
This issue contains a synopsis for two films that never got made - The Red Fox and Night of the Leopard. There was a peculiar one-liner from Van Damme that was intended for the interviewer - Marc Toullec: “Without martial arts, I would probably have become a fragile guy, a tubercular pianist.”
It’s in this article that we learn about how No Retreat, No Surrender (made in 1984 yet released in 1986) got publicity at the Cannes Film Festival. The French dubbing was compared to any given ninja movie starring Richard Harrison. A press officer hadn't bothered to watch it, but he ventured into a room full of rowdy teenagers where he was taken aback by their enthusiasm. Van Damme noticed that all the advertising had focused on him. Each time that he released a movie, video sales increased for this earlier movie.
Universal Soldier was set to begin filming in August 1991. Little did he know that his idol, Sylvester Stallone, would take the essence of the film’s premise for Demolition Man (1994) - although you could argue that The Iceman Cometh (1989) had beat them all to it. Before starring in Universal Soldier, there was another film lined up that Van Damme claimed was going to be “the greatest martial arts film in the history of cinema. More important than Enter the Dragon and Bloodsport. It will be a sequel.”
He posed an interesting riddle since not only did he refuse to say more but he had previously refused to do a sequel to Wrong Bet, Cyborg and Kickboxer. A year later, in the June 1992 issue (No. 39), Van Damme announced: “I will return to martial arts in about two years for Enter The New Dragon. But this film will not at all resemble all the copies of Kickboxer or Bloodsport that are regularly released. The shooting will spread over six months in China and Tibet, in incredible locations. The film is not a remake or a sequel to Enter the Dragon. I hope to be able to act in it, write it and direct it. But, before that, I still have work to do.”
He pulled a 180 degree turn there. While he did make this film (i.e. a 1996 release titled The Quest), his first announcement in February 1991 happened to coincide with Bloodsport and Double Impact actor Bolo Yeung talking about wanting to do a sequel to Enter the Dragon. The only way that a sequel could have been done would be to have Stephen Tung reprise his role as Lau while Van Damme could have played an agent who worked for the same British organization as Braithwaite. Back to the Impact magazine, the June 1991 issue (No. 33) had a quote from Double Impact writer/director Sheldon Lettich about Wrong Bet 2 not being greenlit: “I really don't know much about this sequel that was discussed at the Cannes Film Market, but I don't think Jean-Claude Van Damme is interested in it. Despite the good scores at the American box office, Wrong Bet was not a triumph. Moreover, I have absolutely no idea what could be added to the story of Wrong Bet. If Double Impact works as well as we hope, I will direct the sequel with Jean-Claude.”
It never happened, especially after Jackie Chan’s The Twin Dragons (made in 1991). In the next June issue of Impact (1992), Van Damme joked about unscrupulous producers: “Some even announce titles for which I have not given my agreement. I will now work with the major studios, Columbia, Paramount, which guarantee a wide distribution throughout the world. I am planning for this year and the beginning of next year the thriller by John Woo, Hard Target, and D'Artagnan based on the character by Alexandre Dumas. I believe that Walt Disney is currently preparing a new version of The Three Musketeers with Tom Cruise!”
Van Damme talked about Universal Soldier (which could easily have starred Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone): “During the test screenings, the American public received the film very well. It is rated as much as Terminator 2, 90% satisfied. Tri-Star and Carolco are so happy with the result that they decided to bring forward the American release to July 10. In the United States, summer is a period reserved for big films.”
Van Damme observed: “Filming in desert regions is never easy. It was very hot, we had to transport a ton of equipment to the location. But for the stunts, I couldn't take any risks. When it comes to jumping into the sea from a helicopter, going down a hydraulic dam head first, a stuntman doubles me. The production and the insurance companies refuse to let me do that kind of thing. An accident, and the team would wait until I got out of the hospital! And, suddenly, the filming of my next film would be compromised. In Hollywood, we don't joke about security.”
Van Damme was asked if the film allowed him to evolve as an actor: “Yes. In Universal Soldier, there is obviously a lot of action, but also humor. For an actor, humor counts for a lot. If you manage to make people laugh, smile, you can consider that you have achieved a goal, that you are progressing. I hope to have succeeded in that in Universal Soldier. It would make me all the more happy because the audience does not expect it. Until now, I have not really had the opportunity to try my hand at humor. Universal Soldier gives me this chance. And the humor/action mix always works very well. Just watch Lethal Weapon 3, it's great!”
Back to The Quest - Van Damme’s epic dream project - being the new Enter the Dragon, the July 1996 issue (No. 63) of Impact had a special feature about it where Van Damme said: “Its financing was an adventure in itself because I absolutely wanted it to be an independent production, so as to retain creative control over all aspects of the production. For four years, we worked hard to raise the necessary $25 million, solely in pre-sales to distributors around the world. Not easy. I had to revise my ambitions downwards on the script, and reduce the filming locations. In an earlier script, it was set in France circa 1860 and flirted with the adventure of Alexandre Dumas. Too expensive. At the beginning, I also considered presenting all the competitors, one by one, in their country of origin. If these sequences had been possible, they would have required a considerable extension. So I limited myself considerably. In the original script, we saw the Turk at home, not far from a minaret, carrying a donkey on his shoulders. I would also have liked, in the final fight, to go from the faces of two little Chinese people to those of the children that Christopher Dubois, my character, leaves in New York. Too expensive, like the boat on board which the hero must flee the police. I wanted a cruise ship!”