That's how Frank and I met.Blake Harris: Do you remember what your first meeting was like?Sheldon Lettich: We hit it off right away. In this declaration, Commander Martin attests to the following: Frank Dux: As far as my military service goes, I should also mention that I'm named as a source contributor in the US Navy SEAL SPECWAR manual. And he was brought to our attention through Sheldon. I went into the offices of the L.A. Times with my attorney with the actual fight film footage. And apparently it did huge business. Enter the Ninja?Sheldon Lettich: No, there was no script prior to the "Bloodsport" script. So I suggested a version where Rambo tells Trautman, "Sorry, Colonel, I fought my war. A lot of those shots came from the camera angles I had been directing. Later on, after Sheldon and I got to talking, I gave it to Sheldon and we reshaped it.Blake Harris: And at what point did the script become called Bloodsport. It developed a strong cult following, and has been cited as an influence on the development of mixed martial arts. It was ridiculous what they had. Leon hired me to write a script, which Menahem ended up liking. Why not make a budd. Apparently, Stallone had read the same article and he was thinking exactly the same thing. So any time you want to know who an agent is you can just go down there and file a request? So Frank and I go to a theater and we were both blown away by Jean-Claude. Give me a shot with him." And so, you know, it was just a nice fit. It's a psychological issue that, believe it or not, happens more than you would think. So he brought Tracers to the Steppenwolf Theatre and he directed it. I turned over the programs from the fights that we had in those days. And here comes Moore, and Moore drops him in under 30 seconds. 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. And they weren't returning phone calls. It's a sprawling ecosystem. Armed with a gun that fires Kryptonite needles, Bloodsport nearly succeeded in his mission to eliminate the Man of Steel, but ultimately failed. I saw Sheldon as my friend, and I was trying to help him. And it was a Xeroxed copy of a receipt, a copy that anyone could fabricate on a home copy machine. And that's why I kept it kind of fictional. Okay, okay, you made your point. He was the one who actually introduced me to beef and oyster sauce. No Retreat No Surrender movie led to Van Damme getting the lead in Bloodsport (1988). Jean-Claude, Michel Qissi and we were all predicting how much money the movie was going to make.Blake Harris: That's wonderful.Sheldon Lettich: Yes, but there was still an additional hurdle. 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. Not what's typically expected, which was: Jean-Claude's going to find these motherf***ers and beat the s*** out of them. We do it your way. "But Sly," I said, "it really wouldn't work that way because one thing that's been established with Rambo is that he's the baddest motherf***er in the world, but he doesn't want to fight. Occasionally he'd come by the studio. "This guy's never gonna make it," Menahem said. We were on the set of Lionheart. And I said, "Okay, after dailies, I'll meet you up there." But yes, Idris Elba did an amazing job being the reluctant leader. I said, "You're trying to prove to yourself that you could do it. And he ends up doing a test of speed with this guy named Vic Moore. I'll show you a fighter and I'll fight you on the roof of the hotel!" So I wrote the script and gave it to a guy named Jacov Bresler. For the first time in about 14 years. So I was curious why you think you were so skilled? He saw the script. And so he says yeah, sure, give it a shot. And that's one of the things that were attractive about Rambo so that's what we did with that script.Blake Harris: And what was it like working with Rambo himself?Sheldon Lettich: I was just so honored. Bloodsport Oral History 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. Let's meet face to face. And it was just surreal to her. He did everything to basically poison the well with Jean-Claude and everybody I worked with. It worked great. Because believe it or not, Robert DuBois truly was the man known for shooting the Man of Steel with a bullet in DC canon. ". And I remember Mark telling us, "Menahem is thinking of casting this guy Gene Claude Van Damme. By their own photographer. It chronicles his training by a Japanese master warrior named Tiger [Tanaka]Shoto Tanemura, a Japanese who is one of a select group of recognized Ninja masters in the world, said in an interview in Los Angeles last week that he had never heard of Dux or Tanaka. We have a treatment and we started writing the script. He threw a ridge-hand strike and he swept him at the same time. Use promo code BONKERS for a free month. When I heard that name, it was like bells started ringing. That's the thing. "Frank Dux: Yeah. He's demonstrating how to do a 1-inch punch and a 1-finger push-up. Menahem still thought it was a piece of s***.Blake Harris: How come?Sheldon Lettich: Well, I think this might answer your question. Because this is what happened next Sheldon Lettich: So they sent me to Paris and Corsica to do research and I re-wrote The Corsican Brothers, which I was going to direct. And I'd imitate him.Blake Harris: Do you remember how old you were around this time?Frank Dux: I was 11 years old. I didn't see it coming. He tells one where he says he met Menahem Golan [a producer on Bloodsport] at a restaurant and [Van Damme] threw out his legs and blah blah blah. Do you see what I'm saying? And for three months prior to filming, Jean-Claude would come to my studio after I finished classes, he would show up at like 9 o'clock and I would train him in movie fighting.Blake Harris: How skilled was he? Frank and I did write a couple of scripts together, and he received credit on both of them. And he said yeah. Bloodsport wasn't an Oscar-worthy film in any manner (the original cut was deemed unwatchable and a re-edit was completed before release), but Van Damme's stoic charisma and the memorable. Do you recognize the guy all the way on the right? Released in 1988, Bloodsport tells the story of Frank Dux (Jean-Claude Van Damme), a captain in the U.S. Army and an experienced martial artist, who ignores his superiors and competes in an illegal martial arts tournament in Hong Kong. A little bit. They were flabbergasted. And we never had a fight from that point on. And he's in this movie called No Retreat, No Surrender. And separates Mike's shoulder. He used to tell everybody he was a ninja; I think he still maintains he was a ninja and took his training from this guy named Tanaka. But, I mean, he couldn't do a forward roll when I first got him. Did that piece directly lead to Bloodsport? And we did. No. I showed him some video footage, and that's how the project started.Blake Harris: Before talking about next steps, I'm curious to hear more about your initial script. And it's kind of funny because those are superfluous elements to the film. I need to tell you about something that happened first. I told Menahem that the new cut of Bloodsport was great and I thought it was going to do really well. Although there is no convenient way to verify each and every detail connected with this story, the editors have verified enough of the basic facts to feel confident in publishing it. I imagine that would be hard for you to prove, no?Frank Dux: Well, that part about me saying that the military ordered my record sabotaged? The Jean-Claude I knew was a person who you wanted to see win. There's a birth certificate and a death certificate for him. Told that the tournament was a secret, he said: "We would know. And they did. Let's make a kickass, balls-to-the-wall revenge movie. Like, for example, about your teacher?Frank Dux: They try to make it sound like I made up my instructor. And we did.Blake Harris: Did Mark and the other producers spark to the idea of Jean-Claude?Frank Dux: They wanted to use Michael Dudikoff at first. And we ended up settling. Dux believes this article was part of a smear campaign orchestrated by business competitors. The whole martial arts thing. In fact, that was the script for Stallone that Jean-Claude gave me some dialogue help with.Blake Harris: Ah, right after Bloodsport. But I thought you said Menahem still wasn't fully sold on Jean-Claude.Sheldon Lettich: He wasn't. In 1993, Dux got beaten up by a guy in the first tournament, a guy by the name of "Nasty" Zane Frazier, who is known for knocking himself out when he and his opponent rolled out of the ring and hit the floor. At one point it was the second most profitable article they'd ever written. He went in and redid it. With Jean-Claude Van Damme, Donald Gibb, Leah Ayres, Norman Burton. 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. And as soon as he was back in LA, he gave me a call and came over to my apartment in Park La Brea. And we loved each other at that point.Blake Harris: So you guys were really closeFrank Dux: Yeah, this'll show you how close we were and tie back to what I was saying right before. 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. Dux said the military ordered his record sabotaged to discredit him. He was considered "unstoppable" at that time. That's kind of how it appealed to me. Menahem started to realize what he had with Jean-Claudeand remember, he had two more movies with himso he called us into his office and said, "We need to find our next movie for Jean-Claude." It was horrible. We may receive a commission on purchases made from links. How Did This Get Made is a companion to the podcastHow Did This Get MadewithPaul Scheer, Jason MantzoukasandJuneDiane Raphaelwhich focuses on movies. He's got a lot of abilities. Because he's riding on the coattails of Jean-Claude. Jean-Claude?Frank Dux: When we started? And was that something that you and Jean-Claude consciously tried to deliver (or to avoid)?Sheldon Lettich: We tried to do something atypical with Lionheart. Does that even look the same? And his wife and my wife became even closer friends. So we pitched him Legionnaire, gave him the treatment and Ed went for it.Blake Harris: You mentioned that Columbia passed on Legionnaire because it didn't "stick with the Van Damme formula." Double Impact was financed, mostly, through pre-sales and, as it was structured, each of those companies also own a piece of the movie. The film finds the Suicide Squad going on a mission to the fictional country of Corto Maltese to carry out a mission to destroy a secret installation housing a secret weapon known as Project Starfish. 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