Van Damme Turns Down Stallone, Cites Deficiencies in ‘Story’

Posted by Robert Levin (rlevin@filmschoolrejects.com) on February 10, 2009

Van Damme in The Eagle Path

You know the apocalypse must be on its way when Jean-Claude Van Damme turns down a part because he hasn’t been provided enough information about the story or the character. Yet that’s precisely the reason he tells Total Film he rejected Sylvester Stallone’s overtures and refused to join The Expendables, Sly’s upcoming action flick.

“Stallone gave me a part in his next movie,” Van Damme says. “But I ask him about the subject, the story. He said, ‘you’re going to make lots of money.’ I don’t want to hear that, I want to hear what was my character. He was unable to tell what it’s going to be.”

The Muscles from Brussels goes on to add that Stallone could only guarantee that “the fighting will be good,” which is somehow different from the pitches that sold Van-Damme on The Shepherd: Border Patrol, Wake of Death and Replicant.

This news, if taken at face value, becomes even more inexplicable when one considers the other names attached to the project: Mickey Rourke, Forest Whitaker, Jason Statham and Jet Li, not to mention Van Damme’s old rival Dolph Lundgren. In turning down Stallone he’s both throwing away the chance to appear in only his second theatrical release of the decade and robbing genre fans of a key component in what’s shaping up to be the greatest bad movie of all time.

Seems like a stupid move to me. How do you feel about it?

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_Christopher_M

It all comes down to Van Damme's ego...he wants to star in the film and wants a lead role...he most likely had a small role and said no to the movie... I think everyone in the film even with small roles will be solid...it's JCVD's loss and another bad move...he could have really had his comeback with this movie and still seems to mess things up...this man doesn't seem to understand his genre very well

ANGRYBROOMSTICK

he;s being a little diva, lol

RobertFure

I would have loved to see Van Damme in this, but as someone who as seen The Shepherd: Border Patrol, Wake of Death, and Replicant, I can say those roles all did have character to them. The Shepherd was about a guy who's daughter was murdered and it also shows a lot of the stress of being a border town. Replicant has some heavy emotion, whether or not you feel Van Damme pulls it off, as it deals with a clone that is basically a child being abused by its father without knowing why, yet remains loyal to him. And Wake of Death is actually a pretty good movie, regardless of what's going on. Sure it's a simple tale, but well done and pretty well acted.

I'd say after Wake of Death and JCVD, the Muscles has an excuse to be more selective in his roles. Whether or not this was the case with this movie (he probably should have just taken it, because that would have been awesome) is debatable. But Van Damme is under appreciated.

Robert Levin

That's an interesting point, but I'd still maintain that Van Damme's failure to appear in a single theatrical release this whole decade other than JCVD means he perhaps should not be as selective as he thinks.

_Christopher_M

I love when people wax poetic about Van Damme...Double Impact was the first action movie I saw as a kid...he's an amazing "action" star with average acting abilities I understand at this point in his life he isn't able to do the stunts and action scenes..which was pointed out in JCVD but sometimes he needs to suck it up and do something to help his career...he's done so many direct-to-dvd films...doing one that plays in theaters worldwide is worth lowering the character standard

nicky_cavella

dammit if he was in the film i was going to expect a summersault kick with an american tatoo on his bicep.

CaptainReg0981

Hey! Wasn't that in Brian Gibson's list of DVDs to own?

nicky_cavella

yup STREET FIGHTER :D

MeAtPoPsIcLe

JCVD should go home and beat on his wife some more. At least someone would give a shit about him at that point. He's a washed up nobody at this point and should be on his knees ready to "make that MF movie check"

Babb87

Since When did JCVD become such a Streisand?

Van Damme Turns Down Stallone, Cites Deficiencies in ‘Story’

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