We’ve got an unlikely remake on our hands: Bloodsport, the 1988 martial arts movie starring Jean-Claude Van Damme that became a cult classic, is being remade at A24.
According to Variety, I May Destroy You creator Michaela Coel is writing and directing the remake. The news comes just a few months after U.S. president Donald Trump was reported to have called for a revival of the “raucous comedies and action movies” of the late ‘80s to late ‘90s, and was said to be a fan of Bloodsport itself.
Directed by Newt Arnold, Bloodsport was as cheesy as action movies of the era came. Van Damme plays Frank Dux, a U.S. army captain and ninjutsu aficionado who ends up taking part in an illegal martial arts tournament in Hong Kong. There are epic, and I mean epic, punches and kicks in this movie, some of which take what feel like an age to connect. But when they do… you can really feel it.
Perhaps the most infamous attack is Van Damme’s nut punch, which sees the action star assume a split position to dodge his opponent’s attack and deliver, well, a nut punch. Where do you think Johnny Cage got the idea from, eh?
“The idea came on the set since I was very flexible,” Van Damme would later explain. It’s unclear if Coel will closely follow the original, crotch punch and all. But if it doesn’t have at least one blow to the balls, fans will be disappointed.
Photo by PAT/ARNAL/GARCIA/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
