Jean-Claude Van Damme and Steven Seagal may have had the action movie market cornered in the early ’90s, but true martial arts cinema fans know there was another guy worth watching: Jeff Speakman. A skilled Kenpo practitioner, Speakman was given the spotlight for only a couple of Hollywood theatrical ventures before moving into the straight-to-video world. His 1991 debut, The Perfect Weapon, remains his undisputed standout.
Now, after 20 years away from movies, Speakman is making his comeback with Lost Echoes, an upcoming thriller based on Joe R. Lansdale’s novel of the same name. The film will be directed by Chef Joe Gatto (yes, an actual chef), who is perhaps best known for his extreme scratch-cooking philosophy and his hit Pluto TV series From Scratch.
Lost Echoes follows Harry Wilkes, a young man who has a strange ability to see and hear crimes from the past. After struggling with alcohol, Harry meets Tad, a martial arts expert who helps him turn his life around and control his unusual gift. When an old friend asks Harry to look into her father’s mysterious death, he finds himself pulled into a dangerous mystery.
“After 20 years, I am returning to the motion picture world because of Lost Echoes. We go live on Kickstarter September 1st, so become a part of the solution and let’s make this happen,” Speakman said on his official Facebook account.
🔥 Footnote: Jeff Speakman had a fighting style that felt different from what Jean-Claude Van Damme and Steven Seagal were doing at the time. Instead of flashy kicks or Seagal’s trademark aikido moves, Speakman relied on fast Kenpo combinations, hard hand strikes and quick, close-range movements. Looking back, the fight scenes in movies like The Perfect Weapon, Street Knight and The Expert were ahead of their time.
We’ll keep you updated on this project as we learn more. Until then, check out a personal message from Master Speakman regarding Lost Echoes (now on Kickstarter), followed by Trailers for some of his best-known movies below:
Great to be soon be seeing Jeff Speakman back in films,as the connection with Joe Lansdale(BUBBA HO-TEP) makes this soo-to-happen film project very promising.
This is great news… He is a great talent that due to politics we missed out on a great talent in the arts in the movies.. we still got the artist.. but not the actor side that could have been one of the top as an actor.. I hope to get to work out with Jeff some day… It would be a great honor…
Jeff Speakman is undoubtedly one of the best martial artists of my lifetime. His on-screen fight choreography was about the best and most realistic depiction of martial arts defensive techniques I have seen. It will be good to see him back making movies as I was very disappointed when he stopped making movies. The Perfect Weapon was, and remains, the perfect mix of drama, action, and martial arts that places it at the top of the martial arts film list for me.
Time for these old men to go to retirement homes and make room for the new female generation.