Belgian action film star Jean-Claude Van Damme (Sudden Death, Universal Soldier) is in talks to remake the 1989 film Kickboxer. This time around Van Damme will play the master instead of the student. As Master Chow, Van Damme will teach Kurt Sloan (Alain Moussi, X-Men: Days of Future Past) the secrets of the kickboxer as Kurt avenges his brother’s death at the hands of Tong Po (Dave Bautista, Guardians of the Galaxy). Master Chow was originally played by Dennis Chan. UFC welterweight champ Georges St. Pierre (Batroc in Captain America: The Winter Soldier) also stars. John Stockwell (Blue Crush, Cougar in Top Gun) is directing.
Van Damme has come a long way since the first Kickboxer. He was divorced four times, charged with spousal abuse, and addicted to cocaine before his diagnosis of “rapid-cycling bipolar.” He now has the disorder under control. Van Damme explained: “You just have to take a little salt [the drug sodium valproate], and since I’m doing that it’s, like, BOOM! In one week, I felt it kick in. All the commotion around me, all the water around me, moving left and right around me, became like a lake.”
