Once again Van Damme and Lundgren decided to back in action with another karate movie Universal Soldier movie. But there is a little trick with rising martial arts star Scott Adkins, who became a very popular, definetely his character Boyka from Undisputed 3 movie gave him a very good run to reach the Hollywood big stars.
I have to say that Universal Soldier 3 was not so good as a picture, but fine as an action with fight sequences, thanks to Andrei Arlovski. This karate movie was directed by John Hyams, who did a terrific job, so much so that the studio has retained his services for Universal Soldier 4 in 3D now. Filming began in May and has just been finished (July).
Probably again Van Damme will appear only in half the film and Lundgren might only be on screen for 15 minutes or so, but that’s enough to plant the karate movie with a ‘worth a look’ sticker. Of cause fight between Arlovski and Adkins will become epic, so we just need to wait for about… a year! That is what Scott Adkins said on his twitter account.
Hong Kong director Peter Chan finished shooting kung fu film Wu Xia, a remake of the 1969 classic martial arts movie One Armed Swordsman directed by Zhang Che. Chan got the idea from the film, but he decided to create a new story which is more bloody and cruel. Yes, it looks exacty like this, to see Donnie in so brutal role wanted a lot of fans, so now they have got a chance to do it with a teaser trailer and on August 3 with a full movie.
This kung fu film is the first time Donnie Yen and Takeshi Kaneshiro have cooperated on a movie project, and they are excited about the challenges it offers. Yen is also the fight choreographer. Takeshi got fighting training before the shooting begins.
This is a major breakthrough for Donnie, since so far he has only been seen in heroic roles like in kung fu film Ip Man 2 Film. So what do you think about Donnie Yen as a bad guy?
Tom Yum Goong 2
Tony Jaa is going to take his new big step and get back his status as the best next generation martial artist with martial arts movie Tom Yum Goong 2. And this is a month only after he said about his new Hong Kong based project with well-known fight choreographer Sammo Hung. Sahamongkol Film has announced that Jaa will reunite with director Prachya Pinkaew and fight choreographer Panna Rittikrai for Tom Yum Goong 2 or better known in US as The Protector.
This international group (Jaa-Sammo-Pinkaew) unites together for the first time, so we can expect a hi-octane action. But why are they doing Tom Yum Goong 2? Jaa alone has enough name recognition I think by now they could do something original. I suppose a lot of fans are tired of elephants and and Ong Bak series, so there is no reason to make another same martial arts movie.
I am absolutely sure Tony Jaa looks better in modern martial arts movies like Donnie Yen too, so for me to film another city action is a good idea, but I hope they do not chop up the scenes and do not change the storyline rely on U.S. release, like Wilson Yip did with Ip Man 2. There is a one little trick, they want to make it in 3D… why?