“Kickboxer 2” Theatrical Poster
1989’s Kickboxer was just another stepping stone on a young Jean-Claude Van Damme’s path to stardom. The movie was little more than a remake of Bloodsport, this time transported to the world of Thai kickboxing, but the film was successful enough to spawn a number of sequels, and an upcoming reboot in 2015 by John Stockwell (In the Blood).
The first sequel saw Cyborg director Albert Pyun team up with actor Sasha Mitchell for Kickboxer 2: The Road Back. This film actually received a limited theatrical release in 1991. Mitchell, who would later achieve fame as a co-star on the 90’s TV sitcom Step by Step, was supposedly playing the brother of Van Damme’s character from the original.
The formula must have worked as Sasha Mitchell stuck around for two direct-to-video sequels, Kickboxer 3: The Art of War and Kickboxer 4: The Aggressor, before domestic problems temporarily derailed his career.
Now, looks like Pyun is bringing Mitchell back for a new Kickboxer project (not to be confused with Kickboxer: Vengeance with Alain Moussi). Here’s the scoop from Pyun himself (via Facebook): I was committed to making the Algiers screenplay in January/February. Our foreign distributor took the project out at the American Film Market, which is going on right now, until tomorrow. Well, a couple of shifts in the project. Turns out they would really prefer a Kickboxing film starring Sasha more than an Algiers. So quickly, Algiers became The Kickboxer and that shoots for 6 weeks in January and February… The plan is too shoot 3 weeks in LA and 3 weeks in Nevada.” Click here to see the promotional artwork for Pyun’s upcoming The Kickboxer, which also stars Michael Tushaus, Kevin Sorbo, Norbert Weisser and Scott Paulin.
Updates: Pyun announced that Dennis Chan (Kickboxer 1-3) is reprising his role as mentor, Xian Chow. Also, Michel Qissi (Kickboxer 1-2, Bloodsport), who played the original Tong Po in the series, will be appearing as a different character named Said Ali. In addition – and this should be taken with a grain of salt – there is also some talk about Mark Dacascos (Drive) and Michael Dudikoff (Americna Ninja) joining…
From the words of Pyun himself regarding the newly titled Kickboxer: City of Blood: “Its the biggest action movie I’ve ever attempted. Bigger than Nemesis or Cyborg.” In addition, Mike Leeder (Pound of Flesh) is now co-producing an will be handling casting in Guangzhou, China, where the film starts shooting on February 26th 2015.
According to Albert Pyun’s Facebook (via FCS), producer Mike Leeder has connected the director with Indonesian actress Julie Estelle (Macabre), who’s mostly known for playing Hammer Girl in The Raid 2. She’ll be appearing in Kickboxer: City of Blood as Tun, a secret police agent.
BREAKING NEWS: Because of Pyun’s declining health, as well as casting complications, the shoot date for City of Blood has been pushed back until the fall. Originally, the film had a planned production date on February 26th 2015. Additionally, Pyun is also developing a project called Cyborg Knights, a cyberpunk-style film – co-written by his wife Cynthia – that’s heavily influenced by the filmmaker’s health and brain disorder (via Pyun’s Facebook).
I’ve actually never seen any of the sequels. lol I was always more of a KING OF THE KICKBOXERS fan. I’m sure American Ninja Man will be happy…
Albert Pyun just doesn’t know what to do. First he was going to make a Cyborg sequel, and he couldn’t get Van Damme, and it looked like a pure crapfest so it probably got canceled. Then he tried to put out a shitty extended version of Cyborg that was pathetic through his own business which sucked. Kickboxer was a one hit wonder film, only the first movie was worthy because of Van Damme and the sequels were crap.
He is still doing a Cyborg movie.
you forgot redemption: kickboxer 5 lol starring mark dacascos. what has sasha been doing lately?
well, i have the sequels on dvd. part 4 sucks, so no need to bring back the david sloan character. part 3 is umm actually quite good. i like where they took the story, even though they don’t mention tong po, kurt, or eric. for part 2, to be honest… not that bad. some where in the middle it’s ok. part 3 is like a major improvement. anyway, i don’t really know what to think about a web series. how are they gonna make money from it?
Okay, Kickboxer 4 doesn’t suck is almost as fun as the first one, lots of nudity, good martial arts choreography and well made for a cheap martial arts movie. 3 is awful. Like REALLY, REALLY BORING AWFUL. Kickboxer 2 is decent. 5 is pretty lame.
Anyway I’m thrilled about this, I would totally watch this. I liked Kickboxer 1, 2 and 4.
I lost hope in Web series after the horrid Mortal Kombat web series. Horribly awful even though they ripped the story of Mortal Kombat right off from Enter the Dragon.
I grew up watching these and own the first 4 in the series. I know it’s a disappointment at the lack of JCVD in the sequels but in the 90’s Sasha Mitchell was just as charismatic an actor as JCVD though not a box office draw but a huge television star. I have been re watching the series to analyze what I think was missing from the sequels and here are a few of my thoughts.
The first and second movies had great music and the music in the third though fitting of the Rio location was ultimately forgettable, the fourth movie barely has a musical score at all other than an ominous overture in the final fights. To make these movies slightly more enjoyable IMO is to play the different OST themes from Kickboxer such as “The eagle lands” and “Never Surrender” not a huge difference but like I think it helps unify the series.
I enjoyed all the sequels to one degree or another. 1,2 & 3 are pretty solid, 4 has decent fights but loses it a bit plot wise, Tong Po looks about six inches shorter and a lot camper (I know it’s a different actor). 5 isn’t any good except that it stars Marc Dacascos which makes it worth a watch.
I found the reuse of names a little jarring. The older brother is called Eric, and David’s opponent in 3 is called Eric. 2, 3 & 4 all have characters called Vargas.
Either way, I’ll be really curious to see how this turns out. But as of late, Pyun has been shooting his films really cheap (they make typical low budget films look like Hollywood blockbusters). But maybe for this one – since it’s a known franchise – will get a decent budget. We’ll see.
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