Sheldon Lettich: We got some amazing reviews and it just turned into a little bit of a mini-phenomenon. And that's how I ended up co-writing Rambo III with him. Later on, after Sheldon and I got to talking, I gave it to Sheldon and we reshaped it.Blake Harris: And at what point did the script become called Bloodsport. When. Both of them wanted to be the cop.Blake Harris: That's so funny (though it makes sense).Sheldon Lettich: It just couldn't be worked out so the project fell by the wayside until they got Stallone and Wesley Snipes to be in it. Using tech he got from Lex Luthor, Bloodsport teleported a rifle that fired Kryptonite needles into his hands and shot Superman with it. They didn't back me up and they never said anything about seeing my fight footage.Blake Harris: I'm really sorry to hear that.Frank Dux: And one of the things that people don't realize is that after the Times article came out, people were so willing to convict me, just because it was the Times.Blake Harris: I just have one last question for you: since this whole thing grew, in a way, out of your friendship with Sheldon, I was wondering when was the last time that you spoke with him?Frank Dux: I saw Sheldon, believe it or not, about four weeks ago. And I think it's because he felt very insecure. It was horrible. And we made money on that film. It can't happen.". And here comes Moore, and Moore drops him in under 30 seconds. In Etruscan society, gladiatorial games were supposed to be part of the funerary rituals honoring the dead. Bloodsport (1988) Starring Jean-Claude Van Damme and Forest Whitaker based on experiences in the life of martial artist Frank W. Dux My involvement in that tournament was part of a plan, launched in 1975, to infiltrate the criminal organizations that organized the fights. But the real contest was just punches to the chest, and Moore beat Lee like 4-2. There were a number of people who really liked it. I'm not kidding you. I buy you dinner tonight." It was very time-consuming and it was not easy to match things up with the optical printer, but I thought we did a pretty good job of that. Can you tell me about writing Enter The Ninja? Because my idea for Rambo III was: well, there's only one place Rambo could goAfghanistan. Rambo was always a reluctant badass.Sheldon Lettich: Yeah, you've really gotta push him to fight. And then the fight was on. And I showed them, here's an issue of Black Belt magazine from two years prior to this; and here's a photo of me in that magazine from January 1976 right after I won it, holding the trophy. I still had not yet met Jean-Claude at this time. So there would be one shot where you would see both brothers in the same shot, kind of talking to one another and then all the other shots were either close-ups or over-the-shoulders done with a double. It was done on the exact same day that Masaaki Hatsumi, Stephen Hayes and Shoto Tanemurathese are guys who think no one in the world is a ninja but them and everyone else is a fake.Blake Harris: What about some of the specific claims that the piece makes? And they've never wavered from that.Blake Harris: The kick?Sheldon Lettich: Yeah. So I started doing a Howard Cosell imitation and that's where I came up with the term Bloodsport. How did that come about?Sheldon Lettich: Well, it's interesting. We encountered a few phonies, but eventually we put together a core group. Like I'm a kook because he comes out of a James Bond movie: You Only Live Twice. Then he said, "It's my movie too and I want what's best for the film! And in that way it works, I can see that.With any film that's based on a true story, there are always questions and curiosities about authenticity. You're craaaaaaazy." In fact, I was born with my foot so pigeon-toed that it actually went backwards; my foot, it could go 180 degrees the other way. I assume you're referring to Jean-Claude. "Frank Dux: Yeah. So the play was groundbreaking in some ways. We were calling it "Delayed Stress." My very first fight in Tijuana, they were fighting six of us, and there were only five us there; we were waiting for another guy. And that was the difference. He's in a documentary saying this. And there's a census bureau report saying that he was exactly in the place I was when he trained me. So he re-cut the fights, Michael restructured the movie and when we saw the next cut (which was quite a while later), the movie really worked. And I showed that in court. Like in South America it was called "Vale Tudo" and if the Japanese were running the event it was "Kumite San Soo," so this was a word that described them all.Blake Harris: That's interesting. It made its budget back just the first weekend on the west coast. But I didn't sleep with a reporter beforehand and I certainly didn't break into my instructor's house and steal a sword. And that piece, filled with accusations and allegations, continues even to this day cast doubt upon the reputation of Frank Dux. He wanted to teach for me full time, but he ended up driving a limousine.Blake Harris: And then why, after two years, was he allowed to start tinkering?Frank Dux: I don't know, I couldn't tell you on that. In this declaration, Commander Martin attests to the following: Frank Dux: As far as my military service goes, I should also mention that I'm named as a source contributor in the US Navy SEAL SPECWAR manual. Plus the guy was just an idol of mine. Well, here's the reality of the situation. And apparently it did huge business. Menahem started to realize what he had with Jean-Claudeand remember, he had two more movies with himso he called us into his office and said, "We need to find our next movie for Jean-Claude." And at the Invitationals, there's Bruce Lee. Absolutely. Oh yeah! "Blake Harris: So what eventually changed Menahem's mind? Do you still believe I that?" Although there is no convenient way to verify each and every detail connected with this story, the editors have verified enough of the basic facts to feel confident in publishing it. A lot of it was based on the recollections of my friend Kurt Taylor, who I wrote the script with. Let's put Jean-Claude in. You allow other people just a little glimpse into what that experience was like and to feel it themselves. They were doing a showing of Bloodsport in a theater in my old home town and I just happened to be visiting. Like, for example, about your teacher?Frank Dux: They try to make it sound like I made up my instructor. That's what really happened. By this time we knew that Frank was full of baloney with a lot of the stuff that he was saying about his life. He remembered that there were different shots. I should mention that within hours of the piece begin published, we received several unsolicited e-mails from people who had been there and had a significantly different memory of the screening.Sheldon Lettich: [laughing] I'll let you readers draw their own conclusions. And we ran around like kids, just like kids, and he was showing me this beautiful art deco penthouse apartment in downtown L.A.Blake Harris: That's a great image. So my agent sent him Firebase and he responded very enthusiastically. Or, better yet, where does that phrase come from?Frank Dux: Oh, that's easy. And I said, "Jean-Claude, that's bullshit. One of the key sequences in the film finds Task Force X sent to free Rick Flag from an enemy camp. Okay, okay, you made your point. But he had a great imagination, he had good ideas and he knew the martial arts world pretty well. And I remember Mark telling us, "Menahem is thinking of casting this guy Gene Claude Van Damme. He was a little too old at the time. Because we don't want our readers to be misinformed, Black Belt has a policy of strict verification of all facts pertaining to any article. Jean-Claude is poison!! So you have to get everyone on the same page and agree to make this movie. And I had read an article, in this magazine called M, about the French Foreign Legion. So Frank and I go to a theater and we were both blown away by Jean-Claude. People would just assume that this is how it worked on those other two movies.Blake Harris: That makes sense.Sheldon Lettich: So I actually suggested to Jean-Claude that he use Frank Dux to write the script. In front of everybody. And for three months prior to filming, Jean-Claude would come to my studio after I finished classes, he would show up at like 9 o'clock and I would train him in movie fighting.Blake Harris: How skilled was he? Menahem says, "Oh, Corsican Brothers, that's perfect for Jean-Claude! That's kind of how it appealed to me. But I learned to conquer it, okay? Nobody clapped for Sheldon. But the only guy in the world who could kill Jean-Claude with his permission is Sylvester Stallone. In 1980, Frank Dux first came into the public eye via an article in the November issue of Black Belt magazine. joins Paul, June, and Jason to break down the 1994 Sly Stallone & Sharon Stone thriller The Specialist, a movie that argues bombs are more precise weapons than guns. So Grant's dad, he basically saw that I was struggling to make money so our family could eat and I could buy myself shoes. This is the kind of bond we had. So he still didn't' have a lot of faith in Jean-Claude's acting abilities and decided not to make it. You wanted to help him be successful. But Mark had permission to use his name and to basically say that this was a real story. Plus, we hear LL Cool J's hip-hop prayer and the best . Showed him a few screenplays that I had written and we decided to work together on this. In a recent documentary, Admiral Horton Smith not only acknowledges that I was a covert operative, but also states that any record of mine would have to come out of the Federal Intelligence Court. But Menahem had an in-house fixer named Michael J. Duthie, a really good editor, and he basically re-worked the movie. Bloodsport: Directed by Newt Arnold. Give me a shot with him." With Jean-Claude Van Damme, Donald Gibb, Leah Ayres, Norman Burton. But if they did Bloodsport, then they can do Timecop. They were going to do a movie called Night of the Leopard but there were some problems with getting the script so now they needed a new one. A good example of that is Bloodsport. IMDb is the world's most popular and authoritative source for movie, TV and celebrity content. KUMITE! Then Jean-Claude came in and worked with Michael on the fight scenes, re-working those. Let's meet face to face. They'll cover Frank Dux being a real man, Van Damme's soft baby b. He used to tell everybody he was a ninja; I think he still maintains he was a ninja and took his training from this guy named Tanaka. And, look, in the mid-80's, something like that sounded real intriguing. So these kids kind of grew up together. But Norris was the one, I think, who they declared as the winner. You spent almost four years in the U.S. Marine Corps, is that correct?Sheldon Lettich: Yeah, I served as a radio operator in South Vietnam and then later with 1st Force Reconnaissance Company based at Camp Pendleton, California.Blake Harris: So how did you go about making that enormous transition from wartime soldier to Hollywood writer?Sheldon Lettich: Well, surprisingly enough, my first success came in the theater. Qissi followed Van Damme to Los Angeles and found himself in a bit part in Bloodsport and eventually played the villain, Tong Po, in Kickboxer. I met this guy Sheldon Lettich, who had done a play called Tracers and we became friends. I told Menahem that the new cut of Bloodsport was great and I thought it was going to do really well. We're 60 stories in the air, I'm not kidding you. Well, about the only thing they showed was a trophy receipt.Blake Harris: Which they claimed was evidence that the trophy you won was "at least partially made in the San Fernando Valley? We pitched it to them and they were kind of interested, but at the end of the day they decided not to do it. That this guy looks just like me and we should suggest it to Mark DiSalle. How Did This Get Made is a companion to the podcastHow Did This Get MadewithPaul Scheer, Jason MantzoukasandJuneDiane Raphaelwhich focuses on movies. That kind of caught my fancy. Menahem had also seen the little 16mm movie [Firefight] I directed and was going to give me my first directing deal.Blake Harris: For you to direct a Lone Wolf McQuade sequel starring Leon Isaac Kennedy and Chuck Norris?Sheldon Lettich: Yes, except that Chuck didn't want to do it. How conscious were youand I don't mean with that movie, but in generalabout that kind of formula. No. And on it he writes: To the Man Who Beat Me. A number of ideas were thrown out. And they weren't returning phone calls. 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