MMA fighters in movies

[GeneChing]

I'm predicting that there are going to be more of these and that most of them will not be that good. So I'm going to start compiling them here. I'm thinking more about direct-to-DVD flicks, like the one I'm going to start out with, than stuff like Redbelt (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/article.php?article=766), Never Back Down (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/article.php?article=750) and Fighting (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=50719). I'm thinking more like Honor with Rowdy Roddy Piper, Rener and Rorian Gracie, which I could have swore I reviewed here, but now can't find it.

So here's my first one: Confessions of a Pit Fighter starring Armand Assante and Flavor Flav. Amongst the fighters are Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, Hector Echavarria and Rigan & Jigan Machado. Skip it. It's a stereotypical reluctant fighter tale, something we've seen a thousand times already. I like Rampage. I saw him on a late night interview and I thought he had the charisma for film, not to mention the chains (which strikes me as very WWE). But in this film, he's reduced to a growling villain. The fight choreography is a throwback to old bad John Wayne/Chuck Norris style fights - big haymakers, spinning kicks that take half and hour to wind up, the action is cut at every blow. Lame. I didn't even notice the other fighters much until just now as I read the DVD box.

[Cimaroon]

Flavor Flav......geez, thats enough to not make me wanna see it.

[GeneChing]

According to Cung "I wouldn’t classify this as an MMA movie at all. It’s would be more like a mix of LIONHEART and FIGHT CLUB." (see Cung Le Stars in FIGHTING (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/article.php?article=820)) Still, Cung is an MMA champ, so mention of Fighting is still appropo to this thread...

That being said, check out our new sweepstakes for the latest from Hector Echavarria - Never Surrender (http://www.kungfumagazine.net/index.html). Never Surrender stars MMA champions Georges RUSH St-Pierre, Quinton RAMPAGE Jackson, Anderson THE SPIDER Silva and BJ THE PRODIGY Penn. Brought to you courtesy of the good people at Lionsgate (http://www.lionsgatedvd.com). Contest ends 6:00 p.m. PST on 5/12/09. Good luck everyone!

I'll post a review of Honor if I can remember it...

[GreenCloudCLF]

I read an article I can no longer find that said Rampage was up for the roll of BA Baracus in an A-Team movie. However, this was before he went temporarily insane (which everyone seems to have forgotten), so I do not know if he is still up for it.

[doug maverick]

I read an article I can no longer find that said Rampage was up for the roll of BA Baracus in an A-Team movie. However, this was before he went temporarily insane (which everyone seems to have forgotten), so I do not know if he is still up for it.

that article was pure bull****. i know who is on the list for ba and it isnt a mma guy. well one of them is but he is at the bottom, cant say who thou. its not rampage thou.

[GeneChing]

...come on now, give us a hint. Who's gonna be B.A.? Because the success of that remake will hinge completely on who plays B.A.

I love it when a plan comes together. ;)

[AdrianK]

I pity da fool who tries to be B.A.


... Oh come on, you knew it was coming.

[@PLUGO]

Rampage in Costume as B.A. Baracus (http://screencrave.com/2009-10-09/rampage-in-costume-as-b-a-baracus/)

thoughts?

[Jimbo]

Well, it's got its own thread but I'll name it again, Blood and Bone. The fighters that appear include Bob Sapp, Kimbo Slice, and Gina Carano (in a cameo). Unlike most straight-to-DVD MA movies, this one's awesome.

[GeneChing]

...we'll have to start an A Team thread soon...

[Jimbo]

Hey Gene,
I don't know if this is the right thread for this, but I figured I'd rather not waste space starting a new thread. Have you heard anything about a film called, simply, "Fighter"? I recently spotted this one. Reading the back cover, it's apparently about a young Turkish woman who wants to become a pro(?) martial arts fighter in a man's world, also having to deal with it being at odds with her culture. I think there were (foreign?) film award accolades on the back cover as well. I know nothing else about this, or whether it lives up to the hype or not. The guy who's listed as playing her kung fu teacher is Xian Gao (sp?), from Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.

[GeneChing]

Fighter with Gao Xian (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=48459)
I haven't seen it yet, but I hear it's enjoyable.

[Jimbo]

Thanks, Gene.
It's not the typical straight-to-DVD 'cheapie', as it was listed at full price, $19.99. Looks like it'll be on the list.

[Jimbo]

I just watched Godzilla: Final Wars. It's not a good film, but I actually enjoyed it in a guilty pleasure kinda way. It's one of those "so bad it's good" movies. As far as MMA fighters, Don Frye has a fair-sized role, and Gary Goodridge, Masakatsu Funaki, and K-1 fighter Ray Sefo had brief cameos. Don Frye is the only one of them who actually has a fight scene, but only briefly. His character doesn't have much personality (unlike how he appears in real life), but he is given a couple classic action movie moments: one or two straight-faced one-liners.

[GeneChing]

I couldn't find a place to post this. If it turns into anything, perhaps I'll remember this and move it to a new thread of it's own.

Clarke writes martial arts film (http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/entertainment/film-tv/news/clarke-writes-martial-arts-film-16021050.html)
Friday, 8 July 2011

Noel Clarke would like to make a British equivalent to The Fighter

Noel Clarke has revealed he would like to make a film about mixed martial arts (MMA) and has already written the script.

The Adulthood director-actor wants to follow in the footsteps of successful Hollywood films such as The Fighter and The Wrestler, but with a British version.

"I looked at films like The Wrestler and The Fighter and thought to myself, 'Why hasn't there been a British film like that?' I'm trying to expand what British films do," he told Screen Daily.

Noel continued: "I've been a massive fan of the sport for a long time and this felt like the right time to make this film, as I've got more confident as a filmmaker. MMA is more popular than football when you look at the attendance figures. It's the fastest growing sport in the world."

The untitled film will focus on a "down on his luck MMA fighter who gets drawn further into the sport than he would have liked".

The 35-year-old revealed on Twitter that the script has already been written: "It's written already, been through loads of drafts and should be shooting in a few months."

Noel has co-written a romantic comedy with Davie Fairbanks called The Knot, due out in 2012, and said he was also working on a "sci-fi horror".

[GeneChing]

Warrior (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=51936) may be a game changer.... or not. At the very least, it elicited this article.


MMA headed to mainstream with 'Warrior,' TV deals (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/09/08/entertainment/e131910D04.DTL)
By GREG BEACHAM, AP Sports Writer
Thursday, September 8, 2011
(09-08) 15:35 PDT LOS ANGELES, (AP) --

Tom Hardy showed up on director Gavin O'Connor's porch at midnight a few years ago, brimming with excitement about playing a fighter in a bizarre, violent fringe sport called mixed martial arts.

"I flew out and knocked on his door to tell him why he should hire me to be Chuck Norris," Hardy said with a grin. "At the time, when I read `Warrior' the first time, I thought it was Chuck Norris he wanted."

Hardy and Joel Edgerton both acknowledge they knew almost nothing about MMA when they signed on to star in "Warrior," the biggest major-studio film to date featuring the fast-rising sports.

The two actors quickly figured out MMA isn't about blood, rage and Chuck Norris-style beatdowns. They're hoping audiences will enjoy getting a similar education about a niche pursuit that's about to go mainstream.

"Warrior" puts MMA in the nation's multiplexes Friday as the biggest major-studio film to date about the sport, and the critically acclaimed drama is leading a slew of MMA-related projects in various stages of production. The UFC also just signed a nine-figure broadcast deal with Fox, putting the sport's dominant promotion on network prime-time for the next seven years.

O'Connor knows why MMA is suddenly under Hollywood's spotlight. Storytellers have always loved a good fight — going all the way back to Theogenes, the mythical, undefeated Greek boxer referenced in "Warrior" — but the MMA cage is a fascinating, fresh visual locale for a scrap.

"You can't turn to anyone else, and there's something so primal about that," O'Connor said. "Two men entering a ring, and one guy walks out, one guy gets his hand raised. It's just primal, and when you can use MMA, we haven't seen it in cinema before. If we got it right, which we take great pains to try to do, it'll be something that's new and fresh."

O'Connor first became intrigued by MMA more than a decade ago when he financed the completion of "The Smashing Machine," director John Hyams' 2002 documentary about early MMA fighter Mark Kerr. O'Connor has followed the sport ever since.

"It's beautiful and athletic as hell, and the evolution of it has been like a freight train," O'Connor said.

A couple of years after O'Connor made "Miracle," his well-received 2004 retelling of the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team's gold-medal triumph, he conceived a story about two brothers coming to terms with their violent childhood and a once-domineering father, played by Nick Nolte.

As in any good sports film, the competition in "Warrior" is only a vehicle for telling a bigger story, this one about family bonds and redemption. Yet the fighting scenes are fierce and pivotal, with both brothers competing in a tournament that takes up the film's final act.

"The light bulb went off when I (realized) the backdrop of this sport has never been captured," O'Connor said. "Maybe there's a way to take this story and put it somewhere that some people haven't seen yet."

The actors' MMA training took nearly as long as the shoot. Hardy, who filmed "Warrior" before his mainstream breakthrough roles in "Inception" and the upcoming "The Dark Knight Rises," put 14 more pounds of muscle on his already bulging frame to play Tommy Conlon, the ex-Marine who wins most of his fights by brutal knockout.

"It's terrifying. Don't try it at home," Hardy said with a laugh. "It really is an athletic sport, but the guys aren't the way you might expect. The Brazilian jiujitsu guys, you could marry any of them. They're lovely gentlemen. It's the most humbling experience working with them. They're so kind, so serious, and you can't believe they take 25 minutes of an evening trying to smash each other in the face."

Edgerton tore a ligament in his knee while performing nearly every bit of his own fight action as Brendan Conlon, who returns to fighting to save his family from home foreclosure. Edgerton only gave way to a stunt double for a handful of dangerous body slams.

"It wasn't really as brutal a sport as I was first judging before I got involved," said Edgerton, an Australian and longtime karate student who starred in "Animal Kingdom."

"I had no idea. I just saw it as a bloody gladiator sport, and there's much more to it than meets the eye."

If "Warrior" lives up to its early critical acclaim while also finding acceptance with MMA fans, the film could become a benchmark in a new subgenre. Although Hong Kong superstar Donnie Yen has made MMA films, North American filmmakers are just starting to figure out how to exploit the sport's unique cinematic possibilities.

Chiwetel Ejiofor played a jiujitsu instructor turned MMA fighter in "Redbelt" in 2008, but director David Mamet's meditation on integrity is only tangentially about martial arts, with fights that don't really resemble modern MMA. "Never Back Down," a low-budget MMA film starring Djimon Hounsou, made $41 million at the box office in early 2008, but not much of a splash with critics or MMA fans.

What's more, dozens of low-budget MMA films have filled the DVD bargain bin in recent years, often starring UFC fighters acting their way through threadbare plots.

"It's not like the bar is very high on this stuff, but we still wanted to do it justice right away," O'Connor said.

Several MMA-related films are in various stages of production, some more serious than others. Next July, UFC superfan Kevin James will star with Salma Hayek in the comedy "Here Comes the Boom," playing a teacher who becomes an MMA fighter.

And back in the world of professional MMA, UFC President Dana White believes his TV deal with Fox will put the sport in front of an entirely new group of potential fans. MMA isn't mainstream yet, but White believes it can get there in two years.

"We won't be mainstream until we don't have to explain what we're doing — what the holds are, what the basic rules are," White said. "But people can learn about MMA in a lot of places now — on TV, in the movies, and with everything we do. We're getting there, and we're going to be there soon."

[GeneChing]

When MMA fighters go Hollywood (http://prommanow.com/index.php/2011/10/19/when-mma-fighters-go-hollywood/)
Jillian Bullock | Oct 19, 2011

With mixed martial arts now the fastest growing sport in the world, television and movie executives are taking advantage of this popularity by using many MMA fighters in action movies geared toward 18-34 year-old guys.

There have been several MMA fighters looking to cash in on their popularity and trade their gloves for a script; at least on a temporary basis. Forrest Griffin played a cop in I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell. He also had a role as a murder suspect in an episode of Law & Order: SVU. In Locked Down, Griffin was joined by fellow fighters Rashad Evans, Kimbo Slice and Cheick Kongo.

Georges St-Pierre appeared as himself in the MMA film Never Surrender. He was also featured in action movies Hell’s Chain and Death Warrior. Plus, he shared the screen in a documentary with other UFC fighters titled The Striking Truth 3D.

In 2003, Tito Ortiz started his acting career with a cameo in the Jet Li film Cradle 2 The Grave. He went on to appear in The Crow: Wicked Prayer and Zombie Strippers, among others.

Cung Le was Strikeforce’s middleweight champion in 2008, but the lure of the Hollywood lights persuaded Le to turn in his gloves for a time to pursue a career in acting. Some of Le’s films include Fighting starring Channing Tatum and Pandorum with Dennis Quaid.

Keith Jardine has been featured in several films such as Crank: High Voltage, alongside Jason Statham and Gamer, starring Gerard Butler. The Dean of Mean also starred in a MMA-themed film, Unrivaled. Jardine was joined in that film with fellow UFC fighters Rashad Evans and Nate “The Great” Marquardt.

Before Chuck Liddell retired from the UFC, he had quite a few acting duties, including cameos on television shows such as Inked, Punk’d, Entourage and The Simpsons. Although, Liddell has been a force in the UFC for many years, people got to see his softer side when he appeared on ABC’s Dancing With The Stars.

Randy Couture jumped onto the acting bandwagon when he appeared in The Scorpion King: Rise of a Warrior. He has also appeared in Big Stan, Redbelt and Invincible, starring Mark Wahlberg. His biggest role to date has been the film The Expendables where he shared the screen with several other athletes including Jet Li, Stone Cold Steve Austin and Dolph Lundgren. The film was directed by Sylvester Stallone, who also stars in the action movie and features cameos by Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis.

The Expendables 2 is currently filming and most of the stars listed above, including Couture, will return and add other big named actors and martial artists, including Jean-Claude Van Damme and Chuck Norris.

Taking over a very popular television role for Mr. T was Quinton “Rampage” Jackson who appeared as B.A. Baracus in the A-Team movie. Rampage has also appeared in The Midnight Meat Train with his A-Team co-star actor Bradley Cooper and Never Surrender.

Rich Franklin, who looks strikingly similar to actor Jim Carrey, got his acting break in 2008 with the release of Cyborg Soldier. He has also starred in The Genesis Code and Hamill, which is based on the life of former UFC middleweight Matt Hamill.

J.T. Stewart, Franklin’s manager, stated that it is his job to springboard a new career for his client once he is done with fighting. So, he is taking advantage of Franklin’s popularity now by working to get him signed for a number of films since he has maybe 18 months to two years left in the fight game. Stewart wants to make sure Franklin continues to earn a good living once he hangs up the gloves, and acting can provide him financial security.

“They (MMA fighters) make quite a bit more than your novice actor would just starting out because they do have the celebrity and the name,” said Kat McEntee, owner of the Cincinnati-based Katalyst talent agency.

Currently, Double E Pictures and Motion Theory studios are working on a film about Franklin’s life, titled American Fighter. It will focus on how Franklin taught himself martial arts and went from a high school math teacher to UFC middleweight champion.

Even the women are getting into the mix. Gina Carano, who is perhaps the most popular MMA female fighter, first appeared as gladiator “Crush” in the revamped addition of American Gladiators, which was hosted by Hulk Hogan. Now she is starring in the upcoming film Haywire, formerly called Knockout, which will be released in January 2012. She stars opposite some big time actors, including Michael Douglas, Channing Tatum, Ewan McGregor, and Antonio Banderas.

Don’t Quit Your Day Job

Now, it’s nothing new that martial artists, boxers and even wrestlers have long cashed in on their ability to land acting gigs simply because of who they were. Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris, Dolph Lundgren, Jackie Chan, Jet Li and Jean-Claude Van Damme are all martial artists who used their fighting talents to enter the entertainment industry.

Although many of them did well in movies, rarely have they performed in a film that was a departure from their off screen persona as a fighter. And that’s the problem. Today, audiences are much more sophisticated, and they expect much more from actors they see on the screen, especially when they are paying $10-$15 a ticket.

No one is expecting MMA fighters to perform Shakespeare or turn in Oscar worthy performances, but their acting is often stilted, hackneyed and just plain unbearable to watch. Today’s fighters are following the same path as many professional wrestlers, who also began taking on film roles while they were wrestling superstars.

Wrestlers like Hulk Hogan (Mr. Nanny), Stone Cold Steve Austin (The Condemned), John Cena (The Marine), Jessie “The Body” Ventura (Predator), Kurt Angle (Warriors), and others have all acted in films that would make audiences demand their money back.

However, there are exceptions. The most successful wrestler who has made a smooth transition to acting is Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. Bringing males to the theaters, he relies on his popularity as a former wrestler, but he is also able to put women’s butts in the seats by using his charm and good looks. He has the leading man appeal because he doesn’t come across the screen simply as a thug or a roughneck.

Most male-themed action movies that rely on professional wresters or MMA fighters don’t do well at the box office. In fact, many of them go straight to DVD and they’re made with a much smaller budget than many Hollywood films, so it’s easy for studios to make a return on their money.

Most directors, however, prefer to work with real actors who can be trained to transform into martial artists, wrestlers or boxers. These movies make much more of a connection with the audience and bring in bigger dollars or garnish awards because of the quality of acting.

Take Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler, Mark Walhberg in The Fighter and Invincible, Will Smith in Ali, Russell Crowe in Cinderella Man, and Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton in the recent MMA film Warrior.

Frustrated Fans

Some people don’t blame MMA fighters for thinking about their future and trying to carve out a new career once fighting comes to an end. Plus, “play fighting” in movies is much less strenuous on a fighter’s body and the money is just as lucrative, if not more, than what they receive to abuse their bodies in the cage.

However, fans and other fighters have expressed frustration due to postponed fights and the absence of popular MMA fighters.

Take the fight that was supposed to take place between Quinton Jackson and Rashad Evans at UFC 107. Both fighters were coaches for The Ultimate Fighters show.

After the show was completed, the coaches were scheduled to fight a few months later. That fight didn’t take place in 2009 because Rampage was off filming the A-Team movie.

Evans stated on It’s Time radio program, “I am going to fight him, (Jackson), but not when I’m supposed to. He’s kind of getting sidetracked taking other opportunities above fighting. If it couldn’t happen at all, I would definitely want to fight somebody else, but I know the UFC definitely has a lot invested in us fighting each other. If faced with the same situation I would stick with my obligations and do the fight. I know he has this amazing opportunity to do this acting, but at the same time, at the end of the day he’s still just going to be a fighter. He’s not going to be an actor. He’s a fighter.”

Fighters have been known to take a considerable amount of time off to pursue acting. After Carano lost to Cris “Cyborg” Santos in August 2009, she focused on her major film role in Haywire. After almost two years, she has yet to return to fighting, which has clearly disappointed fans.

After a number of years concentrating on his acting career, Cung Le will return to the cage to fight Wanderlei Silva at UFC 139 in November 2011. Fans are excited and highly anticipating this match since Le, one of the most exciting MMA fighters, has been away for such a long time.

Even UFC President Dana White has expressed his dislike for when fighters go off to do acting. But as he weighs the pros and cons, he also realizes that a fighter’s presence in a film does bring more attention to mixed martial arts and that’s a great thing for the sport. The article overlooked Cung's work in Chinese film, which is a lot of 'A' list movies.