AFM Flashback: Jean-Claude Van Damme Had the marketplace Seeing Double

After the 1988 success of Cannon Movies’ Hong Kong-set Bloodsport, starring the then up-and-coming Jean-Claude Van Damme, Cannon’s Menahem Golan, a routine and vibrant existence at the American Movie Market, was trying to find a brand-new automobile for the Belgian-born martial arts star when writer-director Sheldon Lettich pitched a movie script he had actually composed based upon Alexandre Dumas’ The Corsican Brothers, about 2 twins separated at birth. Golan wasn’t persuaded that Van Damme was all set to manage a double function, however Lettich handled to liberate the script from Cannon and offered it to manufacturer Moshe Diamant, who set it up, with Columbia Pictures consenting to take domestic rights and Vision International dealing with worldwide sales.

Allocated at $15 million, 1991’s Double Effect, the most costly task Van Damme had actually taken on to date, included him as siblings Alex and Chad Wagner. “One loads a piece and the other loads a handgun,” posters for the film announced, although the genuine difference in between the 2 was that Alex depends on street-fighting and guns, while Chad has a black belt in karate. Eager to broaden his variety, Van Damme discussed, “Among them is violent and the other is not, so the audience can see the contrast in my work. This image has funny, love, a romance. So it is not all action and combating. When I combat onscreen, I mix dancing and combating. Grace plus power is really great.”.

THR‘s evaluation stated Lettich “offers Van Damme a lot of area for his efficiency, however his instructions, like his star, just actually comes alive throughout the action scenes,” though he likewise kept in mind that Van Damme’s “growing legion of action fans must be pleased.” In reality, the formula discovered a pleased audience, and after Double Effect earned $80 million around the world ($ 190.8 million today), Van Damme would go on to make 3 more films– 1996’s Optimum Danger and 2001’s Replicant and The Order— in which he once again doubled up to play double functions.