he's a terrible actor. Which was Mike's move. That editorial attributes statements to me that I never made. He was good at boxing. During the tournament, Dux battles an array of international fighters from various schools of martial arts. You know, Jean-Claude was totally overwhelmed when he got to work with Stallone on Expendables 2. I buy you dinner tonight." So Frank and I go to a theater and we were both blown away by Jean-Claude. Ed Boon and John Tobias, the creators of legendary video game Mortal Kombat, were inspired in part by Bloodsport. And so yeah. Discovered by Player FM and our community copyright is owned by the publisher, not Player FM, and audio is streamed directly from their servers. The Robert DuBois version of Bloodsport made his live-action debut in the television series Supergirl, played by David St. Louis. "He's written this Vietnam novel," my agent said, "that the novel's way too long and overwritten. Jean-Claude is poison!! Not what's typically expected, which was: Jean-Claude's going to find these motherf***ers and beat the s*** out of them. So we had a number of people come to my apartment; John would test them out for their acting abilities and we would also try to determine if they were for real.Blake Harris: In what sense?Sheldon Lettich: Oh, I just meant we'd try to determine if they were really Vietnam veterans. It's incredible." On May 1, 1988, just over two months after Bloodsport hit theaters, John Johnson of the L.A. Times published this editorial:NINJA: Hero or Master Fake?Others Kick Holes in Fabled Past of Woodland Hills Martial Arts TeacherAs the title suggests, the piece isn't too kind to Dux. And if Jean-Claude had found out that I really was theat that time, the real force, if you wouldthat was giving him all these elements, Sheldon's usefulness would have been short-lived. It was just a way to release it. The other thing is that Jean-Claude, like I said, he had this uncanny way he looked. What made you such an extraordinary fighter?Frank Dux: Well, you know what? I remember us going back to his apartment and the thing was entirely full.Blake Harris: Did Menahem change his tune about Jean-Claude?Sheldon Lettich: Well, yes and no. In honor of How Did This Get Made?'s #Bloodsport episode, we made this #supercut of Jean-Claude Van Damme's super #butt! Because believe it or not, Robert DuBois truly was the man known for shooting the Man of Steel with a bullet in DC canon. He says, "I love you. So Grant's dad, he basically saw that I was struggling to make money so our family could eat and I could buy myself shoes. IMDb is the world's most popular and authoritative source for movie, TV and celebrity content. So you have to get everyone on the same page and agree to make this movie. Back then, things were so different. His contract was not for writing, it was for use of his name and a portion of his "real-life story." He did everything to basically poison the well with Jean-Claude and everybody I worked with. The Corsican Brothers. And there'd be a bunch of people there with phones to record it, so we don't want this to happen.Blake Harris: Speaking of that screening, Frank had mentioned that you were crushed. But the point I was leading up to was that Jean-Claude just wouldn't be the villain who gets killed at the end of a movie. And I had read an article, in this magazine called M, about the French Foreign Legion. And it was just surreal to her. And on it, they didn't even spell my name correctly. I remember him saying, "Michael Dudikoff is a movie star! In fact, Midway Games attempted to license Van Damme's image for the game. What I had done was I had the fight, like in Bloodsport, but there was one little caveat difference: In between doing these fights, he was also doing stuff to help people on the street. Look, I take people at face value because I'm not a bulls***ter. Rambo was always a reluctant badass.Sheldon Lettich: Yeah, you've really gotta push him to fight. Jason and Paul chat about the latest Star Trek & Star Wars TV shows, Paul digs into Corrections and Omissions from The Specialist, shares a deleted scene from last week's episode about Steven Seagal's blues music career, and announces next week's movie. And he's in this movie called No Retreat, No Surrender. He said, "To be the best, you've gotta fight the best, kid." Fights don't go down like that." He was good at stiff karate moves, but that was it. Nowadays it's all kind of clich. And if somebody tells me they were in Vietnam, and in the Marine Corps, I'll believe them. Not about Jean-Claude per se, but about releasing Bloodsport in theaters?Sheldon Lettich: Menahem was persuaded by Samuel Hadida, who had released No Retreat, No Surrender in France (where it was called Karate Tiger) and been a fan of Jean-Claude's ever since then. And Rambo says [putting on a thick Stallone impression]: let me just go get my gear. After directing Jean-Claude in Double Impact [1991] and Lionheart [1990] before that, was there any reason you didn't want to be involved with writing or directing?Sheldon Lettich: That was right after another movie I did called Only the Strong [1993] and I seemed to have a lot of other things going on. For me, martial arts is just a release. Two, actually. And I actually helped John do the casting. KUMITE! Sheldon wrote Legionnaire and was supposed to direct it, but then Jean-Claude got someone else. While trying to gain access into. They didn't have any proper uniforms. How did you feel afterwards?Frank Dux: It was an enlightening moment. He was a little too old at the time. It developed a strong cult following, and has been cited as an influence on the development of mixed martial arts. I was just at his house for New Year's Eve. I met Gladys, the woman of my dreams, I had a baby, and I'm miserable. In 1980, Frank Dux first came into the public eye via an article in the November issue of Black Belt magazine. He would punch the bricks, breaking them apart. Start Free Trial. Fun bit of trivia: Bloodsport is essentially a hoax perpetrated by Frank Dux, who made outrageous claims about this Kumite tournament that were never substantiated and are physically impossible. I went into the offices of the L.A. Times with my attorney with the actual fight film footage. He knew enough buzzwords to make me think he's the real deal, he's probably been over there. And he says, "What?" I never accused the military of doing it. You see it all the time. So my agent sent him Firebase and he responded very enthusiastically. That's what they always show on the history channel, those two to the head. It's not something that I'm interested in, but good luck." During that time, he's never felt like he had a platform to defuse those lies and tell his side of the storyuntil now. But I got over it.Blake Harris: Well, given that physically you were not a prime candidate for hand-to-hand combat, how did the idea of martial arts even first cross your radar?Frank Dux: As a kid, as a young kid, I was a James Bond fan. I mean, they put it on the shelf for two years. Jean-Claude had a three picture deal with Menahem at Cannon and Leon was very impressed with Jean-Claude; we all thought this was a match made in heaven. During that time, I gave Jean-Claude some odd jobs. And he was an idol of Jean-Claude's too.Blake Harris: Yeah? A little bit. 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 by taking the place of Tanaka's dead son in an illegal, no-holds-barred martial arts tournament called the "Kumite. It's a psychological issue that, believe it or not, happens more than you would think. People would just assume that this is how it worked on those other two movies.Blake Harris: That makes sense.Sheldon Lettich: So I actually suggested to Jean-Claude that he use Frank Dux to write the script. But then Menahem decided he didn't want to make the movie.Blake Harris: Why?Sheldon Lettich: In his words, I'm quoting, "Jean-Claude can't even play one character, how do you expect him to play two?" And I remember watching a movie where James Bond was doing jujitsu. Bloodsport. And so he says yeah, sure, give it a shot. And then he said, "What the hell are we doing out here?" The truth. That was a term, from England, when they used to fight dogs. I also was never AWOL. 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. I met this guy Sheldon Lettich, who had done a play called Tracers and we became friends. Along with Alexander Martin.To this point, on http://frankdux.net/facts/ there is a signed declaration by Lt. Okay, try him out. Though defeated, this wasn't the last the heroes of the DC Universe saw of Bloodsport. Then Jean-Claude came in and worked with Michael on the fight scenes, re-working those. You know, where people go around wearing medals and talking about their fictional war exploits.Blake Harris: That actually makes for a good, non-Frank-related jumping off point. Except the version that Stallone had in mind was for a present day French Foreign Legion movie about two American buddies who enlist. But what's interesting is that after the fight, I see Norris signing a program for Moore. But I didn't sleep with a reporter beforehand and I certainly didn't break into my instructor's house and steal a sword. And just a few more questions. Bloodsport is a 1988 American martial arts film directed by Newt Arnold, and starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, Donald Gibb, Leah Ayres, and Bolo Yeung. We were calling it "Delayed Stress." 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. But he had a great imagination, he had good ideas and he knew the martial arts world pretty well. I don't remember in detail what our first interaction was like, but we just kind of hit it off.Blake Harris: Was it weird for you at all, as a Vietnam veteran, to be working on a book about the war that was written by someone who hadn't been there?Sheldon Lettich: Well, I didn't know that at the time. You spent almost four years in the U.S. Marine Corps, is that correct?Sheldon Lettich: Yeah, I served as a radio operator in South Vietnam and then later with 1st Force Reconnaissance Company based at Camp Pendleton, California.Blake Harris: So how did you go about making that enormous transition from wartime soldier to Hollywood writer?Sheldon Lettich: Well, surprisingly enough, my first success came in the theater. At that point, it was to their advantage. And on it he writes: To the Man Who Beat Me. (w/ Nicole Byer) 4/7/2023 More HDTGM all-star Nicole Byer (Grand Crew, Nailed It!) Well, she'd seen it on TV, but she was too sick when the movie came out. So Leon and I go and pitch this to Menahem. Bloodsport is the name of several supervillains appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics.All of these versions exist in DC's main shared universe, known as the DC Universe.. 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. Like in South America it was called "Vale Tudo" and if the Japanese were running the event it was "Kumite San Soo," so this was a word that described them all.Blake Harris: That's interesting. So these kids kind of grew up together. In 1987's Superman #4, by John Byrne and Karl Kesel, Superman tried to stop Bloodsport's rampage through Metropolis. When I heard that name, it was like bells started ringing. This thingwhatever it was calledit was really cool and it would be a cool way to meet chicks.Blake Harris: And how did you go from passively enjoying these things to actual participating and learning how to fight?Frank Dux: I guess one of the things that helped push me in that direction was that I befriended a kid named Grant who had it far worse than myself. He didn't like it. Ian Fleming based his characters on real people. Because Jean-Claude uses people and chews them up as quick as he can. Around this time, Leon Isaac Kennedy [from The White House All Stars] had been in in a Chuck Norris movie called Lone Wolf McQuade and there was talk about doing a Part Two. I thought that was real interesting.Blake Harris: I imagine that at 11 years old that was a pretty inspiring experience.Frank Dux: Yeah and then three years later, I saw him again. In this video, I speak with the Dan. Over the centuries, however, these . AVianes. I made a joke and it just took him out of it, snapped him out of it.Blake Harris: Laughter is the best medicine, right?Frank Dux: I took him out of it. So I watched that happen and then I watched Victor Moore fight Chuck Norris.Blake Harris: Moore fought Bruce Lee and then Chuck Norris? And I said, "Jean-Claude, that's bullshit. But the fights in the story were all real. And, like I said, it got me my first agent, a guy named Harold Moskowitz[starts laughing] who, a little while later, was looking for help with another one of his clients. ", How Did This Get Made:A Conversation With Sheldon Lettich, Screenwriter Of Bloodsport, How Did This Get Made: A Conversation with Frank Dux, the Real-Life Inspiration for Bloodsport. So I suggested a version where Rambo tells Trautman, "Sorry, Colonel, I fought my war. Everything you've just been telling me about this Kumite, that's a great idea for a movie. And so he told Menahem, "Sell it to me and I'll release it theatrically." And of course he says he did (but he didn't). I assume you're referring to Jean-Claude. So he was just trying to get me in trouble.Blake Harris: What, in your opinion, was his motive?Frank Dux: Well, the thing is, the article came out on the same day that a few of my business competitors are holding a seminar. So those are the three elements. But I'm curious, getting back to what you were saying earlierand what to ultimately led to that story you describedat what point was the producer Mark DiSalle convinced that Jean-Claude would work? Like with Legionnaire. There had been a few other plays dealing with the military and Vietnam at the time, but they weren't written by those who had actually been there. He threw a ridge-hand strike and he swept him at the same time. Sheldon tells everybody that I told him a story of how I fought these events and he thought that would make a great movie and all this kind of stuff. Why don't you go check it out?" Are you guys still friendly?Sheldon Lettich: Oh yeah. I thought it was Pasadena, but everyone's told me it was Long Beach. But if we can cut it down, I think we can sell this novel. Mark was against it first, but I said, "Look, I can do a lot with this guy. Okay? I literally wrote a good majority of that script with Sheldon, but I never got credit for it. 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