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Sledge Hammer 10 (English)
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Sledge Hammer 10E.adf
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vandamme.txt
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vandamme.txt
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2020-05-02
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JEAN-CLAUDE VAN DAMME
---------------------
There are surprisingly big
similarities between Van Damme's and
his big example, Arnold
Schwarzenegger's life story. Like the
austrian body-builder, the belgian
marshal arts champion left his country
and went to Los Angeles. Both wanted
to be a moviestar.
Mainly language problems hindered
Van Damme's movie career. Nowadays he
speaks about this with a perfect
English: " Noone wanted to talk with
me as I didn't speak English. I've
knocked on every producer's,
director's door, and they all asked :
What does this brusselian tough-guy
wants?"
But these times are over. The
"austrian" is on Hollywood's top, and
the "strong brusselian"'s way leads
there, too. It was a hard decision
for him to leave Belgium. He was a
marshal arts star there with a high
salary - he became a little illegal
noone in LA, working for lots of
little not-so-legal businesses, slept
in cars.
He spent 3 years there without any
role. During these 3 years he was a
chaffeur, a bouncer, everything but no
actor. But on a nice day in 1986 he
got a role in the movie 'Not Retreat
No Surrender'. It wasn't a big role,
but big enough to get a pruducer's,
Mark DiSalle's attention. His fast
movements and his charm caught the
interest. He says: "To be a star in
Hollywood you have to be a sex-symbol
besides your talent.
DiSalle introduces Van Damme to
Menahem Golan, the boss of Cannon.
Golam liked Damme's high kicks and
gave Bloodsport's main role to him.
Golan saw that this won't be a
blockbuster, so he was ready for
everything. But not for Bloodsport.
After having seen the movie he shouted
to Van Damme: " What's this???!!! I
won't give you no role in the future!!
Get outta here!!"
In fact, the first version was
really bad, with shit cutting.
Secretly Van Damme took home the
original and cut it with pros, from
his own money. After some months, he
went back to Golan, offering him
Bloodsport with new cut. "I have
enough problems with Chuck Norris,
Dolph Lundgren and Stallone! Please
leave me! Go back to Belgium!" - was
the answer. It seemed that Van
Damme's career is over, but after some
weeks, Golan changed his mind and
decided to release the film to get
back some of the lost money. And
then, like in fairytales, the movie
worth 5000 bucks/copy in the first
weeks, it was sold in 150000 copies.
Wuth the 50 million $ income, it was
Cannon's biggest ever hit.
And since, there is no stop. In
some years Van Damme has made 6
movies;each one was a blockbuster. He
has played a kickbox champ, cop in
jail, and in the underworld aswell.
In his latest hit, Universal Soldier
he plays a specially trained
half-machine guy, who suddenly gets
back into a human, and starts a war
with his ex-captain who is played by
Dolph Lundgren. The film was showed
worldwide not so much time ago, but he
is making a newer one with screenplay
by Joe Esterhas (This dude made Basic
Instinct's screenplay, too).
He loves to make films in Hongkong,
because: "There are excellent
fighters, who don't scream if his nose
is really bleeding."
@IPfester