Mike Leeder brings another round-up of the news-stories from the world of eastern action that you may have overlooked in the last few weeks…
Steven Seagal: Gunfighter…
It’s another week, another digest so, by law, we need to start off with the announcement of yet another Steven Seagal movie being announced. Seagal just spoke of returning to the director’s chair for the first time since On Deadly Ground, for the upcoming Attrition. It will shoot in Thailand with Balistic: Eck VS Sever director ‘Kaos’ aka Wych Kaosayananda serving as cinematographer. ‘Kaos’ has spoken of how Seagal is now going to take more care with his career, choose the right projects, work with the right people etc.
Now comes the announcement of Gunfighter… which seems to be riffing on the well-intentioned Schwarzenegger misfire The Last Stand, as an old school lawman must battle a ruthless gang that has invaded his small town. It comes from a script by End of a Gun writer Chuck Hustmyre.
By our count, Seagal’s dance card of upcoming projects now includes Attrition, Contract to Kill, End of a Gun, Cypher, The Asian Connection, Perfect Weapon, Code of Honor, Killing Salazar and the in-development stage Under Siege 3 and Four Towers.
Gridlocked
Off the Grid(locked)…
Almost sharing a title with the dark comedy thriller Gridlock’d starring Tim Roth & Tupac Shakur, comes Allan Ungar’s blend of The Hard Way, The Raid and the remake of Assault on Precinct 13. The film stars Legends of Tomorrow/Prison Break‘s Dominic Purcell as a tough cop forced to give a ride-along to an arrogant movie star (Cody Hackman) only for the two of them to get caught up in the action when a police facility is over run by a team if highly trained mercenaries. As you do.
The trailer for the film looks pretty impressive. Ungar (Tapped Out) has assembled a solid supporting cast that includes a number of genre favourites including Stephen Lang (The Hard Way, Into the Badlands), Danny Glover (Lethal Weapon), Vinnie Jones (Snatch), Saul Rubinek (The Equalizer TV series amongst many others) and former WWE Diva Trish Stratus.
The only thing we’d note is… when you embiggen the image opposite: what the heck is wrong with Purcell’s tiny arm on the poster?
Here’s a look at the film itself…
Lionheart: Remake in the works from Moonstone…
The original Lionheart was one of Jean-Claude Van Damme’s breakout vehicles. Originally announced as remake of the Charles Bronson Streetfighter movie, the film evolved and was released round the world under a number of titles including Lionheart, Full Contact, A.W.O.L. and Leon (not to be confused with the Jean Reno / Natalie Portman film, of course).The film followed a Legionnaire who is forced to go AWOL from his unit following an accident involving his brother, arriving in America, he becomes part of the underground fight world to raise money for his family.
There’s been talk of a sequel or remake several times over the years, with cult director Albert Pyun being briefly attached to a potential remake about two years ago, and who spoke of possibly relocating the film from Los Angeles to Hong Kong. But for various reasons the remake didn’t move forward. Now – perhaps in response to the very positive reaction from buyers to the Kickboxer remake Kickboxer: Vengeance with Alain Moussi (and a sequel already in the works), Moonstone Entertainment and producer Etchie Stroh have the remake listed in pre-production and scheduled to shoot before the end of the year, although no word yet on any cast or crew.
We’ll keep you posted as it develops, and who knows maybe we’ll still get to see the much discussed Bloodsport remake that’s been in development hell for some years and the TimeCop remake that was announced but also seemed to vanish…
Here’s the original’s trailer from 1990…
Force Five: Enter the Dragon Redux hits blu-ray…
1981’s Force Five was Robert Clouse’s attempt to capture the lightning in the bottle that struck gold with 1973’s Enter the Dragon, and treads some very familiar ground but does have its own appeal.
In Force Five a martial arts expert leads a team of fighters to rescue a senators daughter from an island under the control of the evil leader of a fanatical religious cult. The film stars the man who could and should have King, American Karate legend Joe Lewis (Jaguar Lives), Richard Norton (The Magic Crystal) in his first collaboration with Clouse, Benny the Jet Urquidez (Wheels on Meals) who shows he was doing Hong Kong action long before anyone else in the West, Sonny Barnes from Gymkata and The Big Brawl and Hapkido master Bong Soo-han (A Fistful of Yen).
No official word yet on a release date of potential special features, we’d love to see interviews with Urquidez Norton and Bong, and perhaps an audio commentary? There’s further information here: http://www.scorpionreleasing.com/
Nine Demons
Terracotta unleashes The Nine Demons…
It’s a case of the Faust and the Furious for one new title getting released shortly.
Terracotta Distribution continues to release some classic kung fu onto UK DVD with the latest release being Chang Cheh’s wuxia take on the classic deal-with-the-devil scenario, Faust.
Two childhood friends and martial arts experts are the only survivors of a massacre; when one of them stumbles into a portal to Hell, the lord of the underworld grants him magical powers and an opportunity for revenge if he allows the unruly ‘Nine Demons’ to enter his body. Returned to the land of the living he sets out to rescue his friend and avenge his family’s murder… but will the power of the Nine Demons prove too strong for this kung fu master to control?
The Final Master
Finally…who is the Master..?
Xu Haofeng is probably best known for penning the screenplay for Wong Kar-wai’s The Grandmasters, but he has also been making his name as a director, with such projects as The Sword Identity and Judge Archer/The Arrow Arbitration, with him presenting the martial arts in a much less stylized manner than most Hong Kong or Chinese films.
June will see the release of his latest project The Master/The Final Master starring Liao Fan (Chinese Zodiac), Song Yang (Sword Identity), Jia Song, Li Xia, Huang Jue and Chin Shieh-chieh.
The stylish poster is reproduced here and the trailer can be seen at: http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/independent/thefinalmaster/
