GeneChing
02-14-2022, 12:36 PM
Hot EFM Package: Jean-Claude Van Damme’s Final Action Film; Muscles From Brussels Battles Past Movie Opponents In Cross Creek’s ‘What’s My Name?’
(https://deadline.com/2022/02/jean-claude-van-damme-final-action-film-whats-my-name-fighting-past-movie-opponents-dolph-lundgren-bolo-tong-po-1234931826/?fbclid=IwAR2eeJCmYQFwt4PJxAy5_Kas2_gdsd2poufE5-UPThlsOFjoxw9yFi0y5_Q)
By Mike Fleming Jr
Co-Editor-in-Chief, Film
@DeadlineMike
February 11, 2022 1:48pm
https://deadline.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/MSDKICK_EC011.jpg?crop=0px%2C43px%2C3128px%2C1753p x&resize=681%2C383
Jean-Claude Van Damme and Michel Qissi in 'Kickboxer'
Everett
EXCLUSIVE: In a hot package for EFM buyers this weekend, Jean-Claude Van Damme will star in What’s My Name? Directed by Jeremy Zag, the film will be produced by Cross Creek’s Tyler Thompson alongside Asko Akopyan, Zag and Van Damme. Executive Producer is John Soibatian. Cross Creek is fully financing a film that will reunite the fighting icon in matches against some of his past screen rivals.
https://deadline.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/MSDUNSO_TR018.jpg?w=202
Lundgren, Van Damme
Everett
Van Damme tells Deadline that What’s My Name? will dip into his cinematic and personal life — as did the 2008 film JCVD — and that it will bring to an end his long career as an action film fighter. Oscar-winning Green Book scribe Nick Vallelonga and Paul Sloan (Stilleto) wrote the script, based on a story by Van Damme. Wild Bunch International is handling foreign sales, and CAA Media Finance is representing the film’s domestic distribution rights.
https://deadline.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/MSDKICK_EC005.jpg?w=300
Jean-Claude Van Damme, Michel Qissi
Everett
In the film, Van Damme will play himself. Left in a coma following a serious car accident, he wakes up with amnesia, unrecognizable to everyone, including himself. Through a series of fights against iconic fighters from across his legendary career, Van Damme begins a quest for his own identity and life meaning. This leads him to one final match.
Zag produced the animated series Miraculous: Tales of Lady Bug and Cat Noir.
“I wanted to leave the stage but with a revisit of my career, starting with Bloodsport, the one where I started to become famous,” Van Damme told Deadline. “I want this to be a new Bloodsport but on a higher level. In the film, I am on my way down in terms of career, and as I come out of a premiere of another action movie, I am not happy because I’ve been living in hotels the past 30 years, which is actually true. We’re going to bring real elements from my real life and what happened to me. I came from Belgium, all the way to Hollywood. I succeeded, I failed, I came back. So I’m walking out on the street after the premiere, and boom! — a car hits me because I’m drunk. When I wake up from the impact, I don’t know what’s my name, and no one recognizes me.”
Said Zag: “He’s trapped in this catch-22 where his heart is his only guide and that road will lead him through a journey that includes a lot of fights, in what will be a real action mainstream movie where we treat JC as a real human superhero.”
What’s fun is that for Van Damme the character to regain his mojo, he will fight a lot of the on-screen opponents that made him a star for his acrobatic, high-flying style. That likely include will Universal Soldier‘s Dolph Lundgren, Kickboxer‘s Tong Po (Michel Qissi) and Double Impact‘s Bolo Yeung (who co-starred alongside Bruce Lee in Enter the Dragon and remains in fine shape).
Zag said that they will shoot this in Paris, in unexpected locations like the catacombs beneath the Opera of Paris, where he’ll square off against the nemeses of his long screen career.
https://deadline.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/MSDDOIM_CO004.jpg?w=300
‘Double Impact’ with Bolo Yeung, Van Damme
Everett
“I grew up watching JC and want new audiences to do the same thing, and when he stands against Tong Po, he’ll begin to flashback in his mind, and we will reproduce some of the best fights from some of his biggest movies.”
Van Damme — who at 61 can still do that incredible split he showed off with a foot on two different moving Volvo trucks — said he is preparing to put in the necessary hard training in several countries to get himself ready for his last hurrah. “We are getting all of the iconic people I fought and have most of them come back,” he said. “All of the UFC fighters grew up watching my movies, and we will have some of those great champions as fighters, and some as managers like Randy Couture. We’ll have a great mix and the fights will have a real feel to them.”
https://deadline.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/M8DBLOO_EC014.jpg?w=300
Yeung and Van Damme
Everett
As for what he’ll do after throwing that last spinning hook kick, Van Damme has planned it out.
“I’m canceling everything to get in shape, and after this movie, I’ve bought a small boat,” he said. “Not a big boat — that’s not for me — but I want to go around the world, and relax. I work all my life, I live all my life in hotels for 30 years. That all will be explained in the movie, how I became far away from my family. After this, I want to relax and enjoy my life and family, because life goes by fast.”
This sounds very promising...
(https://deadline.com/2022/02/jean-claude-van-damme-final-action-film-whats-my-name-fighting-past-movie-opponents-dolph-lundgren-bolo-tong-po-1234931826/?fbclid=IwAR2eeJCmYQFwt4PJxAy5_Kas2_gdsd2poufE5-UPThlsOFjoxw9yFi0y5_Q)
By Mike Fleming Jr
Co-Editor-in-Chief, Film
@DeadlineMike
February 11, 2022 1:48pm
https://deadline.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/MSDKICK_EC011.jpg?crop=0px%2C43px%2C3128px%2C1753p x&resize=681%2C383
Jean-Claude Van Damme and Michel Qissi in 'Kickboxer'
Everett
EXCLUSIVE: In a hot package for EFM buyers this weekend, Jean-Claude Van Damme will star in What’s My Name? Directed by Jeremy Zag, the film will be produced by Cross Creek’s Tyler Thompson alongside Asko Akopyan, Zag and Van Damme. Executive Producer is John Soibatian. Cross Creek is fully financing a film that will reunite the fighting icon in matches against some of his past screen rivals.
https://deadline.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/MSDUNSO_TR018.jpg?w=202
Lundgren, Van Damme
Everett
Van Damme tells Deadline that What’s My Name? will dip into his cinematic and personal life — as did the 2008 film JCVD — and that it will bring to an end his long career as an action film fighter. Oscar-winning Green Book scribe Nick Vallelonga and Paul Sloan (Stilleto) wrote the script, based on a story by Van Damme. Wild Bunch International is handling foreign sales, and CAA Media Finance is representing the film’s domestic distribution rights.
https://deadline.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/MSDKICK_EC005.jpg?w=300
Jean-Claude Van Damme, Michel Qissi
Everett
In the film, Van Damme will play himself. Left in a coma following a serious car accident, he wakes up with amnesia, unrecognizable to everyone, including himself. Through a series of fights against iconic fighters from across his legendary career, Van Damme begins a quest for his own identity and life meaning. This leads him to one final match.
Zag produced the animated series Miraculous: Tales of Lady Bug and Cat Noir.
“I wanted to leave the stage but with a revisit of my career, starting with Bloodsport, the one where I started to become famous,” Van Damme told Deadline. “I want this to be a new Bloodsport but on a higher level. In the film, I am on my way down in terms of career, and as I come out of a premiere of another action movie, I am not happy because I’ve been living in hotels the past 30 years, which is actually true. We’re going to bring real elements from my real life and what happened to me. I came from Belgium, all the way to Hollywood. I succeeded, I failed, I came back. So I’m walking out on the street after the premiere, and boom! — a car hits me because I’m drunk. When I wake up from the impact, I don’t know what’s my name, and no one recognizes me.”
Said Zag: “He’s trapped in this catch-22 where his heart is his only guide and that road will lead him through a journey that includes a lot of fights, in what will be a real action mainstream movie where we treat JC as a real human superhero.”
What’s fun is that for Van Damme the character to regain his mojo, he will fight a lot of the on-screen opponents that made him a star for his acrobatic, high-flying style. That likely include will Universal Soldier‘s Dolph Lundgren, Kickboxer‘s Tong Po (Michel Qissi) and Double Impact‘s Bolo Yeung (who co-starred alongside Bruce Lee in Enter the Dragon and remains in fine shape).
Zag said that they will shoot this in Paris, in unexpected locations like the catacombs beneath the Opera of Paris, where he’ll square off against the nemeses of his long screen career.
https://deadline.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/MSDDOIM_CO004.jpg?w=300
‘Double Impact’ with Bolo Yeung, Van Damme
Everett
“I grew up watching JC and want new audiences to do the same thing, and when he stands against Tong Po, he’ll begin to flashback in his mind, and we will reproduce some of the best fights from some of his biggest movies.”
Van Damme — who at 61 can still do that incredible split he showed off with a foot on two different moving Volvo trucks — said he is preparing to put in the necessary hard training in several countries to get himself ready for his last hurrah. “We are getting all of the iconic people I fought and have most of them come back,” he said. “All of the UFC fighters grew up watching my movies, and we will have some of those great champions as fighters, and some as managers like Randy Couture. We’ll have a great mix and the fights will have a real feel to them.”
https://deadline.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/M8DBLOO_EC014.jpg?w=300
Yeung and Van Damme
Everett
As for what he’ll do after throwing that last spinning hook kick, Van Damme has planned it out.
“I’m canceling everything to get in shape, and after this movie, I’ve bought a small boat,” he said. “Not a big boat — that’s not for me — but I want to go around the world, and relax. I work all my life, I live all my life in hotels for 30 years. That all will be explained in the movie, how I became far away from my family. After this, I want to relax and enjoy my life and family, because life goes by fast.”
This sounds very promising...