Archive: A Man With Vision

Though not a superman himself, Mark Damon, like a high concept version of 007's M, has sent many of the world's foremost action stars on some of their most memorable movie missions. His Vision International sent that violent Viking Dolph into battle against the Dark Angel, out into the badlands of Joshua Tree and on the trail of Val Kilmer's Johnny Mnemonic, while twinning Hong Kong with L.A. to allow Van Damme to duel with Van Damme in Double Impact and sending The Muscles from Brussels on the adventure of a lifetime in The Quest.

Further down the lethal weapon league, Damon unleashed Bolo Yeung as the Shootfighter and Lorenzo Lamas as viper. He's one busy fella, which may be why he kept us waiting for over an hour during the final day of the '93 Mifed festival. It was worth the wait, with one of the movers and shakers of the high impact industry taking us behind the scenes.

Impact: The most high profile film that you have upcoming within the action genre is The Quest, which is being written, directed, produced by and is set to star Jean-Claude Van Damme. You obviously have a lot of confidence that he can shift from being a movie star to fulfilling these other roles.

Mark Damon: Yes. I've known Jean-Claude for quite a while. We worked together on Double Impact when we distributed that overseas, and we've talked about a number of other projects. The Quest seems to be his dream. Jean-Claude is eminently qualified to direct films. He's directed short films, and I've been on the set while he's been working. He deals with his actors very well. He understands camera movement, how to 'block' the actor and he certainly understands action. He's actually choreographed most of his fights in the movies that he's made. He has a great visual sense, a great movie sense, and he's one of the smartest guys I know. I think that, with the help of Vic Armstrong and a lot of other top people in the troupe, he's a natural as a director.

Impact: This project has previously been touted under a number of different banners, as Bloodsport 2, as a sequel to Enter the Dragon... I understand that it now has no connection to those other films.

Mark Damon: No, I think that the only similarity is that there's a tournament at the end. Outside of that, it has nothing to do with Bloodsport or Enter the Dragon.

Impact: You mention Vic Armstrong as one of the troupe of The Quest. You've worked with him before on double Impact, and on his directorial debut with Joshua Tree. People seem to shift roles, front actor to stunt arranger to director, quite easily. Is this a particular phenomenon of the action genre?

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