With the recent Bloodsport: Redux trailer going viral. It was done so well a lot of people thought it was the trailer to a legit Bloodsport sequel finally. Unfortunately, not, it was just a fan-made trailer. This prompted me to look back at the legit Bloodsport sequel that was in the works for a short time. Bloodsport is easily in the top ten of the biggest and best martial arts movies of all time. Nothing had quite hit the scene since Enter the Dragon. It put Jean Claude van Damme on the map and made him a star. What followed was a string of theatrical releases for Van Damme before he slipped into the Steven Seagal straight to DVD movies. But what happened to the real sequel?
I know there was a bunch of sequels starring Daniel Bernhardt. Bloodsport 2, Bloodsport 3 and the god awful Bloodsport 4: The Dark Kumite. There seemed to get worse as they went on. Bloodsport 2 is the most respectable of the bunch.
So back in 2010, the rights to Bloodsport were purchased by producer Alberto Lenzi. He got in touch with Bloodsports original scriptwriter Sheldon Lettich. Lettich has a whole bunch of writing and directing credits to his name such as Double Impact, Lionheart (AWOL), Rambo 3 and Only the Strong to name a few.
Lenzi got in touch with Bernhardt and the two came up with Bloodsport: A New Beginning. Bernhardt then brought the project to Lettich and introduced him to Alberto. Alberto wanted Lettich to write the script and he wanted it to be a big theatrical release. Bernhardt was set to star and direct the movie. Lettich then said OK I’m up for that but there’s only one way it’s going to get a theatrical release and that’s if it stars Jean Claude Van Damme as the main star. Bernhardt can feature but not be the main star. Alberto was like well can you get Van Damme, Lettich was unsure.
Coincidently Van Damme happened to be in town and got in touch with Lettich for a catch-up. At first, Lettich admitted he didn’t think Van Damme would be onboard revisiting old projects but to his surprise, Van Damme was well up for it.
Lawyers got involved to check the rights which were all legit, the script was being written so full steam ahead right? Unfortunately, not. The first thing Vam Damme asked was who’s directing? And was told, Daniel Bernhardt. Van Damme was like What!! Why not Lettich? Why am I going to get directed about by Bernhardt who’s never directed a movie? So, the director was changed to Lettich. Makes sense, right?
When Bernhardt got wind of all this he well and truly put a spanner in the works and saw it wouldn’t get made. There were other issues too but that was a big one. You can kind of see it from his side. He brought the project to Lettich and was set to star and direct and now he’s not starring, he’s not directing, and he would get a minor role in the movie at most. He would still get producers credits, but this made him very disgruntled.
In saying that let’s face it. No one would care about a new Bloodsport movie with Daniel Bernhardt just like no one really cared about the Kickboxer sequels with Sasha Mitchell. Nothing against Bernhardt and Mitchell obviously but it’s Van Damme we want to see as Frank Dux to continue the story. Can you imagine someone saying oh they are making a sequel to Bloodsport with Jean Claude Van Damme and directed by Sheldon Lettich? I’d be like “oh goddam, is Bolo Yeung going to be in it?”
So Unfortunately like many awesome sounding sequels that got stuck in development hell, I’m looking at you Dog Soldiers 2. It never came to be. But now maybe with the huge interest in the Bloodsport Redux trailer, it might get revived once again. Check out the trailer for Bloodsport: Redux below.
