Was Nineteen Eighties The Film Channel host Michele Russell hooked up to play a sister character within the 1989 Van Damme traditional Kickboxer?
Legendary drive-in film critic and film host Joe Bob Briggs (who at the moment has a present on the Shudder streaming service known as The Final Drive-in with Joe Bob Briggs) has a Patreon account known as The Misplaced Drive-In, the place they share the internet hosting segments from his days on MonsterVision, a TNT present he hosted from 1996 to 2000, and Joe Bob’s Drive-in Theater, which he hosted on The Film Channel from 1986 to 1996… and one of many just lately shared internet hosting segments might need unearthed a little bit of fascinating trivia in regards to the 1989 Jean-Claude Van Damme traditional Kickboxer! Particularly, it appears that evidently the makers of Kickboxer might need, at one level, been planning to incorporate a sister character and to place her in jeopardy.
Joe Bob wasn’t the one host presenting motion pictures on The Film Channel within the ’80s. One in all his fellow hosts was Michele Russell, who additionally had some appearing credit to her title. She had roles in episodes of CHiPS, It Takes Two, CBS Kids’s Thriller Theatre, The Magical World of Disney, and Sledge Hammer!, in addition to the TV film Goldie and the Bears and the motion comedy Below the Gun. In April of 1988, Russell offered a displaying of the 1982 James Woods drama Quick-Strolling alongside Joe Bob – and through their internet hosting segments, it was revealed that Russell was leaving The Film Channel to pursue her appearing profession, beginning with a job in a film known as Kickboxer that was about to start out filming in Thailand.
Russell mentioned, “I’m going halfway around the world to make movies, I’m going to Thailand. … That’s what’s going to be fun. It’s a B movie that you’ll like, Kickboxer. I don’t play a kickboxer, I play the sister of a world class kickboxer who will actually lose the biggest fight of his life to save my life.” She figured that the film was going to finish up being rated R, and whereas she wouldn’t be doing a topless scene, she did assure the movie would have a number of motion.
The Van Damme movie Kickboxer is certainly an R-rated motion movie that went into manufacturing in Thailand in 1988 – but when it’s the mission that Russell was hooked up to look in, it clearly underwent a serious script rewrite between her April dialog with Joe Bob and the beginning of filming in August, as a result of Russell isn’t within the film (or another kickboxing film) and there’s no sister character in it in any respect.
Directed by David Price from a screenplay written by Glenn A. Bruce (who was working from a narrative crafted by Van Damme and producer Mark di Salle), Kickboxer has the next synopsis: Eric Sloane is an American kickboxing professional, helped by his brother, Kurt, in his quest for glory. However when the 2 go to Thailand to tackle legendary Tong Po, the opponent viciously beats Eric and leaves him paralyzed. Swearing vengeance, Kurt tracks down grasp Xian Chow and begins studying the game himself whereas additionally getting caught up in prison intrigue involving thuggish crime boss Freddy Li. Van Damme is joined within the forged by Dennis Alexio, Dennis Chan, Michel Qissi, Ka Ting Lee, Rochelle Ashana, and Haskell Anderson.
Fairly than a sister character being put in jeopardy, the movie does have Van Damme’s Kurt falling for a younger girl named Mylee, Ashana’s character, who’s put in jeopardy towards the tip. So if Russell’s Kickboxer was the identical Kickboxer we all know and love, the sister was changed by a love curiosity.
Sadly, Russell’s appearing profession didn’t go very far after her Kickboxer position fell by. The one credit score she has after Below the Gun in 1987 is an look within the 1993 comedy Hexed.
Lionsgate just lately gave Kickboxer a 3-Disc SteelBook 4K UHD and Blu-ray launch that features commentaries with producer Mark di Salle, director David Price, and actor Haskell Anderson, in addition to interviews with different forged members (together with Van Damme), so possibly a misplaced sister character is talked about someplace in there – however I haven’t had the prospect to undergo that launch’s bonus options but, and after I noticed Michele Russell speaking about her Kickboxer appearing position in 1988, I discovered it to be very fascinating.
Do you suppose a sister-in-jeopardy factor would have labored for Kickboxer? Share your ideas on this one by leaving a remark beneath.
