Is that true?Sheldon Lettich: We were working on a sequel, but I just don't think it's going to go anywhere, unfortunately. ).Blake Harris: That's great. I need to tell you about something that happened first. And we made money on that film. U.S. soldier Frank Dux (Jean-Claude Van Damme) has come to Hong Kong to be accepted into the Kumite, a highly secret and extremely violent martial-arts competition. So any time you want to know who an agent is you can just go down there and file a request? Is that what you're telling me?Blake Harris: Right, that's why I thought it would difficult to prove (or disprove).Frank Dux: Yeah, but I'll tell you what. It sold well at the box office, grossing $65 million on a budget of $1.5-2.3 million. So he started taking me to construction sites where I could get work. So I go in to pitch my idea and his development executive, she was just flabbergasted when I showed her the magazine cover and told her about the idea. But then Menahem decided he didn't want to make the movie.Blake Harris: Why?Sheldon Lettich: In his words, I'm quoting, "Jean-Claude can't even play one character, how do you expect him to play two?" But I'm curious, getting back to what you were saying earlierand what to ultimately led to that story you describedat what point was the producer Mark DiSalle convinced that Jean-Claude would work? I'd been writing screenplays and thinking about films, but what happened was an actor friend mine was reading Drama-Logue and saw an ad from this guy John Di Fusco looking for actors who were also Vietnam veterans. It would have been an expensive movie. These targets included the planned mining of a Nicaraguan port and the planned sabotage of certain Nicaraguan installations including power stations and weapons depots, codenamed OPERATION CORDOBA HARBOR. And it misrepresents my responses. Are you kidding me? howdidthisgetmade@earwolf.com Episodes The Specialist LIVE! But, Dux's version of the event is that Frazier . So he brought Tracers to the Steppenwolf Theatre and he directed it. How much of the story really happened? Plus, two cousins duke it out . Jean-Claude's character comes to the US to help out his brother, not with anything like revenge or violence on his mind. And he just laughed and said, "Come on, let me show you this house. Using tech he got from Lex Luthor, Bloodsport teleported a rifle that fired Kryptonite needles into his hands and shot Superman with it. But I thought you said Menahem still wasn't fully sold on Jean-Claude.Sheldon Lettich: He wasn't. He was good at stiff karate moves, but that was it. They wanted to stick with the Van Damme formula. KUMITE! He owes you two more movies! with Andy Griffith, where Barney Fife was getting picked on and so he goes to learn judo. That's kind of how it appealed to me. Another thing was that had I co-directed The Quest with Jean-Claude, it might have contributed to a mistaken notion that Jean-Claude co-directed Lionheart and Double Impact with me. And he was an idol of Jean-Claude's too.Blake Harris: Yeah? They were doing a showing of Bloodsport in a theater in my old home town and I just happened to be visiting. And it was just surreal to her. Everywhere else in my life I'm like a duck out of water, but put me in that arena and I just swim. And that piece, filled with accusations and allegations, continues even to this day cast doubt upon the reputation of Frank Dux. But what's crazy is almost everything he says in that interview is an outright lie or a distortion.Blake Harris: I've interviewed a lot of people in my timeincluding a lot of people I believe were trying to sell me on liesbut I never got the sense from Frank that he was trying to put one over on me. And I showed that in court. KUMITE! And it may be a typical Hollywood story, but you still never see it coming. Jean-Claude had a three picture deal with Menahem at Cannon and Leon was very impressed with Jean-Claude; we all thought this was a match made in heaven. Millions of Americans were first introduced to Tiger Tanaka in the Ian Fleming novel. I literally wrote a good majority of that script with Sheldon, but I never got credit for it. ", How Did This Get Made:A Conversation With Sheldon Lettich, Screenwriter Of Bloodsport, How Did This Get Made: A Conversation with Frank Dux, the Real-Life Inspiration for Bloodsport. So my agent sent him Firebase and he responded very enthusiastically. Actually, I should back up. Dux's trophy from the Bahamas event was at least partially made in the San Fernando Valley. A little bit. Either way, it's fair to say that filmgoers are a pretty forgiving lot. By this time we knew that Frank was full of baloney with a lot of the stuff that he was saying about his life. Because you didn't do it in Hong Kong." And then he did a kick that missed his face by like two inches. So to compensate, they put me in these metal boots. "He was a peaceful accountantuntil he was PUSHEDTOOFAR!" I kid you not.Blake Harris: So you weren't some kind of jiujutsu prodigy?Frank Dux: Not at all. What was the reaction like from Sheldon, Jean-Claude and Mark [DiSalle]?Frank Dux: They didn't care at that point. I remember him saying, "Michael Dudikoff is a movie star! He was just polite. Jeez. And tears started to form in my eyes. Wow.Frank Dux: And he knocked Chuck Norris to the ground several times. Well, she'd seen it on TV, but she was too sick when the movie came out. You wanted to help him be successful. The Robert DuBois version of Bloodsport made his live-action debut in the television series Supergirl, played by David St. Louis. So when I finally connected with Lettich, I worried that there might be some not-so-flattering words headed my way. It was called Firebase and was basically Zulu in Vietnam; about a small disparate group forced together on a Firebase that gets attacked by an overwhelming number of North Vietnamese. In fact, we explored Post Traumatic Stress in the play, but the term PTSD had not even been coined yet. I don't know if they ever approached Michael Dudikoff, but basically the producers were in a quandary as to who to cast. Only the part relating to the Kumite because he was going to hang on to the rest of his rights for the rest of his "exploits" for other movies. How Did This Get Made is a companion to the podcastHow Did This Get MadewithPaul Scheer, Jason MantzoukasandJuneDiane Raphaelwhich focuses on movies. The whole martial arts thing. And he agreed to that. IMDb is the world's most popular and authoritative source for movie, TV and celebrity content. How blindsided were you when the piece came out?Frank Dux: Well, there was nothing I could do. Surprised? I think it was Jean-Claude finally convinced them to allow him to do it. And that's pretty much what Double Impact isBlake Harris: I read online that you might be writing a sequel to Double Impact? [laughing] Those old 80s trailers, that's what they'd say over and over again. Enter the Ninja?Sheldon Lettich: No, there was no script prior to the "Bloodsport" script. He said, "Movies often come in cycles and there hasn't been a martial arts film in a while; I think that cycle is going to come back soon." They were just being assholes.Blake Harris: That seemed to happen a lot at CannonSheldon Lettich: Now Blake, I have never filed a lawsuit against anyone in this business, but I filed a lawsuit against those guys, against Cannon. I don't think Stallone has ever been given his due by movie critics. We're not friends [anymore] and he does everything in his power to try and paint me as being a nutball or a kook because of it.Blake Harris: That's why I wanted to focus this piece on you, so you can tell the story in your own words.Frank Dux: So now you're starting to hear the real truth of the matter, you know what I mean? Uh, no. And he did that to Sheldon several times. I used my Hebrew name: Benjamin Wolf. All of this was prior to Bloodsport. And so how did you swivel from that experience into something in the film world?Sheldon Lettich: This will sound like it's coming completely out of left field, but the first time I actually got paid to write a script was a horror film that involved voodoo.Blake Harris: Yeah, I think that qualifies as "left field" status.Sheldon Lettich: [laughing] What happened was I had met [Blaxploitation star] Leon Isaac Kennedy, who wanted to option a script of mine. What I had done was I had the fight, like in Bloodsport, but there was one little caveat difference: In between doing these fights, he was also doing stuff to help people on the street. And then the fight was on. Look, Stallone was the biggest star in the world at the time and to even have a meeting with him was, to me, a huge honor. Give me a shot with him." And if somebody tells me they were in Vietnam, and in the Marine Corps, I'll believe them. 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 think what happened in reality was more interesting, but you have a limited amount of time to tell a story and it has to resonate with the audience, you know? 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. Why was that the case?Sheldon Lettich: Because Menahem thought it was terrible. Well you know how that ended up. It's a psychological issue that, believe it or not, happens more than you would think. And it was a Xeroxed copy of a receipt, a copy that anyone could fabricate on a home copy machine. And he was just a different person. He tells one where he says he met Menahem Golan [a producer on Bloodsport] at a restaurant and [Van Damme] threw out his legs and blah blah blah. Why not make a budd. "He's written this Vietnam novel," my agent said, "that the novel's way too long and overwritten. 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. Bloodsport wasn't an Oscar-worthy film in any manner (the original cut was deemed unwatchable and a re-edit was completed before release), but Van Damme's stoic charisma and the memorable. Find ratings and reviews for the newest movie and TV shows. They'll cover Frank Dux being a real man, Van Damme's soft baby b. Despite mixed reviews from critics, it was a considerable box office success, grossing $50 million on a budget of $1.5-2.3 million. It was just a way to release it. And the CIA and everyone is obligated to tell you? The one who's putting up his "dux? Like, very famously, he turned down Demolition Man. And the two of them wrote this first draft. He taught at the Nakano spy school in Japan. And he says, "What?" I really screwed up. He didn't like it. Not what's typically expected, which was: Jean-Claude's going to find these motherf***ers and beat the s*** out of them. In fact, Midway Games attempted to license Van Damme's image for the game. It was a horrible film. Rambo was always a reluctant badass.Sheldon Lettich: Yeah, you've really gotta push him to fight. In downtown L.A. And I go: Well, just do me a favor. I never accused the military of doing it. He was very stiff. But to my pleasant surprise, Lettich was a complete gentleman. And it became real clear and finallyI said show me the proof that I represented myself as a war hero, as a Medal of Honor hero? You see it all the time. I was going to say something like, "By the way, there's actually someone here who worked on the movie and he can maybe answer some of your questions" and he was going to come out and everyone would have went f***ing crazy. How did that come about?Sheldon Lettich: Well, it's interesting. He's got a lot of abilities. That is not to say that the Tanaka name has no meaning. Because for years he would turn down roles if his character had to be defeated at the end. So cool, in fact, that now we have a professional basketball team called The Raptors and no one raised an eyebrow about why a team from Tornoto, Canada would be named that. In Etruscan society, gladiatorial games were supposed to be part of the funerary rituals honoring the dead. However, speaking of the UFC, Frank Dux does have a tangential connection to the UFC. Fun bit of trivia: Bloodsport is essentially a hoax perpetrated by Frank Dux, who made outrageous claims about this Kumite tournament that were never substantiated and are physically impossible. But when I got done with him he was doing front flips, he was doing great.Blake Harris: And what about his personality? You allow other people just a little glimpse into what that experience was like and to feel it themselves. And so we climbed back over the wall and onto the set. John had convinced somebody there that doing this play was a good idea for veterans. He's been carrying on like that for years and years. 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. I went into the offices of the L.A. Times with my attorney with the actual fight film footage. 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. And when I told about him the purpose of this How Did This Get Made seriesto investigate how movies got made, and the careers of those involvedhe was happy to clear up any misconceptions and provide additional insights into the making of Bloodsport, his two decades of collaboration with Jean-Claude Van Damme and what it takes to write a badass, blow-em-up action film. Frank lost that case. That's water off my back. You've gotta kidnap his friend. I wasn't an actor, but I was a writer, so I got in touch with John and we hit it off. But if they did Bloodsport, then they can do Timecop. I blame the success of Jurassic Park for this movie. You've gotta [in a dramatic macho voice] PUSHHIMTOOFAR. Get personalized recommendations, and learn where to watch across hundreds of streaming providers. Showed him a few screenplays that I had written and we decided to work together on this. During the tournament, Dux battles an array of international fighters from various schools of martial arts. Armed with a gun that fires Kryptonite needles, Bloodsport nearly succeeded in his mission to eliminate the Man of Steel, but ultimately failed. And I said, "Okay, Sheldon, you get the credits, and then when you get up to the next level, you just bring me up." He went in and redid it. It's a tale so amazing that two months after the film's release, it was dismissed by the L.A. Times as nothing but a fabricated "macho fantasy." 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? I said, "Real Kumite fighters, we fight here. At one point it was the second most profitable article they'd ever written. His contract was not for writing, it was for use of his name and a portion of his "real-life story." But then Ed Pressman, who had done Street Fighter, he wanted to do another movie with Jean-Claude. It's not something that I'm interested in, but good luck." The piece, entitled "Kumite: A Learning Experience," was written by editor John Stewart and begins with the following note: From time to time, Black Belt learns of unusual events or occurrences in the martial arts; events thateither because of their nature or because they occurred in the distant pastcannot be easily verified. And so, you know, it was just a nice fit. And then Hollywood got to him and he started showing signs of manic depression, you know?Blake Harris: In what way?Frank Dux: I'll never forget. Back when I first started working with Stallone, my agent had told me to bring an idea to pitch him for a script. 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. More Like This Unspooled with Paul Scheer & Amy Nicholson Listen up, film fans! On May 1, 1988, just over two months after Bloodsport hit theaters, John Johnson of the L.A. Times published this editorial:NINJA: Hero or Master Fake?Others Kick Holes in Fabled Past of Woodland Hills Martial Arts TeacherAs the title suggests, the piece isn't too kind to Dux. Which kind of made Grant feel better about himself. While trying to gain access into. I don't know if the word "genius" is maybe taking it too high, but this is a very smart creative guy who is very much underappreciated. Okay, try him out. Jean-Claude was doing movies for Columbia and they wanted him to bring them some ideas for movies and we brought that idea to them. And a lot of pain, I guess, made me fight. Apparently, Stallone had read the same article and he was thinking exactly the same thing. Pushed too farand generally all three words would appear on screenthat was big in the 80s. There's a birth certificate and a death certificate for him. Blake Harris: The Black Belt article got a lot of attention and certainly must have piqued the interest of some folks in Hollywood. 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. It's a way for me to just flow. It was horrible. And Jean-Claude's got a really good sense of how a fight scene should be edited. That was really my very first entry into the Writer's Guild.Blake Harris: Moving up the ranksSheldon Lettich: Yeah, and around this time I wrote a Vietnam screenplay that got me my first agent. Okay, okay, you made your point. So Frank put me on the phone with Jean-Claude and that was the first time I ever spoke to him. In fact, I never even got story credit for it.Blake Harris: That's rough.Frank Dux: Well, Sheldon has made a career out of coming in behind me and putting his name on my work, okay? We liked the fact that we were able to do something different there. Bloodsport 4: The Dark Kumite. They could shut me out from sequel rights. And then he was inspired to write a script. When I heard that name, it was like bells started ringing. He actually challenged me to a fight. Okay? And one of those people was Sylvester Stallone, who had put the word out that he was looking for someone to help him write Rambo III. They did sequels and I've never gotten paid for them when I was supposed to. California, Oregon and Washington. That's what really happened. With Bloodsport and Deadshot picking up each other weapons in battle. We even made a movie together, my 16mm short Firefight, which I gave him a major role in. I want to make this movie, but I want you to make this movie with a real movie star and that's Michael Dudikoff." By their own photographer. KUMITE! Let's meet face to face. And I said, "If you're gonna go, just don't pull me with you." Especially when you believe that person is your friend.Frank Dux: Exactly. 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. I actually got to take my mother for the first time to see the film. We expect embellishment, we condone narrative condensation and we celebrate character-driven points of view. There's not a Tanaka in Japanese history of the ninja families? Over the show's decade-long run, they've covered a lot of. So I climbed up on the ledge with him. He threw a ridge-hand strike and he swept him at the same time. So when he heard that there was another movie with Van Dammeand this time Van Damme was starring in itSammy was totally enthusiastic. One contribution I made to that script though was suggesting to Jean-Claude that he set the story in the past. He had an answering machine at the time that had a limit of, like, 50 messages. 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. Released in 1988, Bloodsport tells the story of Frank Dux (Jean-Claude Van Damme), a captain in the U.S. Army and an experienced martial artist, who ignores his superiors and competes in an illegal martial arts tournament in Hong Kong. If you want to look it up, the SEAL manual number is K-431-0097.Blake Harris: Great. I had my then-fianc back in the United States get all the uniforms for them. Like Bloodsport is one of his best movies ever but it still resulted in a great episode. Bloodsport Oral History Synopsis: U.S. Army Captain Frank Dux ( Jean-Claude Van Damme ), who had been trained as a boy by the legendary Ninjutsu master Senzo Tanaka, decides to honor his mentor. Kurt had played football at Prairie View College in the 60's. I had them cut down so it would fit him because I'm a bigger guy. So I ended up writing that script for him. At what point along the way were his fears diminished?Frank Dux: Well it was diminished when they were going to get rid of himJean-Claude doesn't realize how close he was to never having a careerand I took Mark off to the side and I said, "Look, I'm betting it all, Mark." 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. Do you see what I'm saying? In this video, I speak with the Dan. So I suggested a version where Rambo tells Trautman, "Sorry, Colonel, I fought my war. So flash forward ten years and I still had this notion of doing a film about the classic era of French Foreign Legion movie. Early on, Johnson describes him as "a bright but undistinguished young man who, using cleverness and chutzpah, recreated himself as a super-hero a decade ago, painstakingly authenticating his new persona with military medals, trophies and newspaper clippings of questionable origins. And this felt very personal because the guys that were up on stage for those initial performances were pretty much playing themselves in many respects.Tracers, as the play would later be titled, was first presented as a work-in-progress performance piece on July 4, 1980. It chronicles his training by a Japanese master warrior named Tiger [Tanaka]Shoto Tanemura, a Japanese who is one of a select group of recognized Ninja masters in the world, said in an interview in Los Angeles last week that he had never heard of Dux or Tanaka. And at the Invitationals, there's Bruce Lee. The red one, the blue one, the black one. And then Moore took me and Grant and started showing us some stuff. You can listen to theBloodsportedition of the HDTGM podcasthere. The uniform they had for Jean-Claude was silk pajamas, these Chinese silk pajamas. And on it he writes: To the Man Who Beat Me. But the fights in the story were all real. And they wouldn't show it to me. I always try to look for the best in people. And like I said, guys like Sheldon didn't help, putting a knife in my back.Blake Harris: So what was it like seeing him at the screening?Frank Dux: I was cordial. So I watched that happen and then I watched Victor Moore fight Chuck Norris.Blake Harris: Moore fought Bruce Lee and then Chuck Norris? I told Jean-Claude I might be getting the rights back to Corsican Brothers so he got Moshe on board. Plus the guy was just an idol of mine. As far as, like, the choreography for how fights go and stuff. We needed at least $20 million to do this thing right and it looked like it might happen, but it didn't. He saw the script. KUMITE! Jean-Claude Van Damme." And there'd be a bunch of people there with phones to record it, so we don't want this to happen.Blake Harris: Speaking of that screening, Frank had mentioned that you were crushed. LIVE from Largo in Los Angeles, Nicole Byer of Party Over Here joins Paul and Jason to discuss the cult 1988 Jean-Claude Van Damme martial-arts film Bloodsport. And we loved each other at that point.Blake Harris: So you guys were really closeFrank Dux: Yeah, this'll show you how close we were and tie back to what I was saying right before. And then he said, "What the hell are we doing out here?" Was Sheldon the first person you shared it with?Frank Dux: Well, it was supposed to be a series. Joseph Papp heard about it, so he brought the show to the Public Theatre in New York. And he's in this movie called No Retreat, No Surrender. If they'd actually served. And he just started laughing and he says, "Frank, you're crazy. 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. We gave our enthusiastic thumbs up and the next thing I know they're in pre-production and off to Hong Kong. One of the only places where we initially differed was with the entry point. This was significant not only because he wrote the screenplay for Bloodsport, but also because Dux had said some unflattering things about the writer. That it would be helpful and therapeutic.Blake Harris: And was it? Released in theaters 35 years ago, on Feb. 26, 1988, Bloodsport starred Van Damme as Frank Dux, a U.S. Army soldier who leaves the military to enter a fight-to-the-death martial arts tournament in . He couldn't say anything. He took pride in the fact that he was all natural. He was actually going to come to that Bloodsport screening in North Hollywood [referenced in our conversation with Frank Dux]. Dux believes this article was part of a smear campaign orchestrated by business competitors. And then there was the famous meeting between Jean-Claude and Menahem on La Cienega Boulevard. It was offered to him and Seagal. How else could you get a hold of this? And that was the difference. So he goes there on his own to rescue Troutman, and that pretty much became the movie.Blake Harris: That's a good point. And he did the helicopter kick in No Retreat, No Surrender and I was well known for my flying kicks and finishing guys off with my spinning flying kicks. Dux aped the premise behind Enter the Dragon, then claimed it as true. He knew enough buzzwords to make me think he's the real deal, he's probably been over there. The concept of gladiatorial games has its roots in the Etruscans, the predecessors of the Romans. A lot of those shots came from the camera angles I had been directing. And interestingly enough, it was only after Jean-Claude did that to Sheldon that he testified on my behalf in the case for The Quest.Blake Harris: I understand. And not only did More beat Lee, but he actually let him score one. And the one twinning shot would sell it and it worked surprisingly well.Blake Harris: The next movie you worked on with Jean-Claude was his directorial debut, The Quest [1996], but only in the capacity of script polishing. I should also back up and say that I was really poor growing up. Neither of them was about a martial arts tournament, and neither of them was ever produced. Today on Variant, we give you the comic book. So it was lot of college hijinks, trying to get girls and all that stuff. This thing, it had legs, and started traveling around the world (London, Australia, etc. He's a producer, he's got like 50 films under his belt. 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. So we had a number of people come to my apartment; John would test them out for their acting abilities and we would also try to determine if they were for real.Blake Harris: In what sense?Sheldon Lettich: Oh, I just meant we'd try to determine if they were really Vietnam veterans. They liked the idea, liked the script, and decided to go ahead and do it as a low-budget movie. And so he told Menahem, "Sell it to me and I'll release it theatrically." Stallone's original idea was that [Colonel Sam] Trautman comes to Rambo and says something like: hey, I got a mission for you in Afghanistan. "Below are some of the key points and accusations made in the piece: Frank Dux: By the way, the L.A. Times won't even defend the article anymore. After directing Jean-Claude in Double Impact [1991] and Lionheart [1990] before that, was there any reason you didn't want to be involved with writing or directing?Sheldon Lettich: That was right after another movie I did called Only the Strong [1993] and I seemed to have a lot of other things going on. And I'd imitate him.Blake Harris: Do you remember how old you were around this time?Frank Dux: I was 11 years old. Shortly after running our last piece, How Did This Get Made: A Conversation with Frank Dux, the Real-Life Inspiration for Bloodsport, I was put in touch with Sheldon Lettich. Not go into the past. I also remember seeing something on Mayberry R.F.D. This is like 1979 and he wanted to put together some kind of theatrical piece about Vietnam veterans. "Blake Harris: Can I guess that the novel was The Last Rainbow [by Frank Dux]?Sheldon Lettich: Yup. And he ends up doing a test of speed with this guy named Vic Moore. And were just digging this whole notion of Jean-Claude being a Legionnaire. A franchise was the idea. Well, Menahem just happened to be searching for an actor to play the lead in Bloodsport so he told Jean-Claude to come by his office the following morning and gave him a copy of the script.Blake Harris: Right, right.Sheldon Lettich: But the point we're getting towards is my first meeting with Jean-Claude. I'll tell you one thing: When I was there, I got a standing ovation. And they did. Unlike so many of the testosterone-fueled films of the '80s, Bloodsport holds the rare distinction of being based on a true story.