Phillip Noyce Set to Remake Jean Claude Van Damme’s ‘Bloodsport’
May 17, 2011
Source: Screen Daily
by Ethan Anderton
After helming the 2010 summer action flick Salt, director Phillip Noyce has been linked to several different projects. There’s Our Wild Life with Nicole Kidman circling the lead role, an adaptation of an unpublished Navy SEALs thriller Firing Point, the time travel drama Timeless, and the spy flick Wenceslas Square. Now the filmmaker finds himself linked to another project as Screen Daily has heard news out of Cannes that Noyce is set to direct a remake of the 1988 Jean Claude Van Damme action flick Bloodsport with Robert Mark Kamen, writer behind Fifth Element, Taken and The Transporter franchise, scripting it.
While the original film took place in Hong Kong following a fighter competing in an illegal underground martial-arts competition where serious injury and even death are not unknown. This time, the story has some slight changes following an American who goes to Brazil to recover from the violence he has experienced in Afghanistan who gets involved in a martial arts contest. Obviously the incorporation of Afghanistan is what makes it a contemporary take on the story, but I’m betting the action and fighting probably won’t make this too much of a departure from the original. The real question is who will step up to take the role filled by Jean Cladue Van Damme?
We don’t have a thread devoted to the original Bloodsport, but it’s mentioned on 19 threads on this forum now.
This time, the story has some slight changes following an American who goes to Brazil to recover from the violence he has experienced in Afghanistan who gets involved in a martial arts contest.
who the hell goes to brazil to get away from violence?
bbwwaaahhhhhh !!!
That’s like going to Thailand to get away from trannys !
Like you guys have never done a whirlwind tour of Mexico and China to get over diarrhea.
The US president is apparently leveraging connections with Paramount owner the Ellisons
Rush Hour 3 (New Line Cinema)
Eddie Fu
November 24, 2025 | 10:46am ET
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Since taking office, Donald Trump has made shaping Hollywood in his image a priority. As David Ellison, son of major donor Larry Ellison, oversees Paramount and rises as a frontrunner to take over Warner Bros., the US president appears well-positioned to see his wishlist fulfilled.
According to a new report in Semafor, this includes reviving two major action movie franchises: 1988’s Bloodsport, starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, and the *Rush Hour*series, led by Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker.
Trump has expressed a particular fondness for Bloodsport dating back to the mid-1990s, describing it as “an incredible, fantastic movie” in a 1997 profile with The New Yorker.
As for Rush Hour, Trump has a personal connection to the franchise, whose first three installments were directed by Brett Ratnerbefore the disgraced filmmaker was accused of sexual misconduct by six women during the #MeToo movement. Ratner, who has been pitching a revival for years now, is currently directing a documentary on First Lady Melania Trump.
Additionally, Rush Hour producer Arthur Sarkissian’s company made The Man You Don’t Know, a 2024 film that promised to give a “balanced, deeper portrayal of Trump.” Chan himself expressed cautious optimism after Trump’s 2016 election, saying that he should be given “a chance to try to change America and change the world… He’s a businessman… I think he knows how to handle these types of things.” Tucker was less enthusiastic about Trump’s presidency in 2018, telling Piers Morgan, “I want him to be successful, I want him to do the right thing.”
Shortly after being inaugurated for his second term, Trump appointed Jon Voight, Mel Gibson, and Sylvester Stallone as “Special Ambassadors” to Hollywood, which he described as a “great but very troubled place.” Since then, he has reshaped the Kennedy Center, firing dozens of board members and appointing himself as chair while emphasizing “non-woke” programming.”
Bloodsport too?
Actually I think Rush Hour is kinda woke…
Bloodsport redux
