It was recently announced that later this year we are going to watch Jean-Claude Van Damme in ‘We Die Young’.
It is always good to see that the beloved action star manages to skillfully balance his time between his crazy social network activity (he seems to compete with the Facebook bot Dwayne Johnson for that), hard gym work outs, and film shootings.
While some are still weeping over the swift cancellation of the highly enjoyable comedy show ‘Jean-Claude Van Johnson’ on Amazon, the Belgium action veteran is already looking forward to his next film projects.
Following the recent success of ‘Kickboxer: Retaliation’, one of them is the upcoming crime-thriller ‘We Die Young’, expected to air at the end of 2018.
According to the director Lior Gellar, the script took seven years of research and shaping.
As part of his fact-finding, he interviewed real gang members, local cops, and war veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Taking place in the violent inner-city slums of Washington DC, a place filled with drug dealers and powerful street gangs, all the action occurs within 24 hours.
The plot revolves around the 14-years old Hispanic child thug Lucas who has harsh times as a member of a San Salvadorian crime gang headed by the vicious Rincon.
Lucas tries at any cost to protect his 10-years old brother Miguel from becoming a part of this pernicious life.
When the Afghanistan veteran Daniel (Jean-Claude Van Damme) arrives in the neighborhood looking for drugs in order to ease his troubled mind, Lucas forms a desperate bond with the former soldier.
Soon Daniel finds that the righteous thing to do is to help Lucas and his little brother escape from the grinding crime reality that they live in.
In order to do that, he must face one of the most dangerous street gangs in America and its ruthless leader Rincon.
Ready for some Van Damage?
The Israeli-born writer and director Lior Gellar talks about this project as one of his most important works up to date.
But who is he and what is he known for?
Gellar’s short student film ‘Roads’ (2007) happened to be a real triumph and won tens of prestigious awards worldwide.
The drama on which ‘We Die Young’ is loosely based has even been nominated for an Academy Award for ‘best foreign student film’ and on top of that it won a Guinness World Record for most awards won by a student film.
The young director apparently has a promising future in Hollywood and the crime-drama with Jean-Claude Van Damme marks his first feature film.
In the rest of the cast we shall see Joseph Long (‘Dracula Untold’), the Portuguese beauty Joana Metrass (‘Once Upon a Time’), the young actor Nicholas Sean Johnny in the role of Miguel, and Elijah Rodriguez as the youngster thug Lucas.
David Castaneda (‘Sicario 2: Soldado’) will play the antagonist Rincon.
‘‘We Die Young’ was shot in Washington, DC and partially in Bulgaria, so some part of the cinematography, the producing, and the stunts are done by the always hard working Bulgarian film crew.
The production was wrapped on November 1st, 2017 and the movie is expected to air towards the end of this year.
At first glance, ‘We Die Young’ looks like a serious drama project.
Being in his late fifties, Jean-Claude appears to realize the importance of not limiting his roles only in the action genre.
Not that in the fast-paced ‘We Die Young’ Van Damme won’t kick an ass or two, but in general, the movie will mostly be an intense crime-thriller, rather than an explosive actioner.
So it seems that ‘the Muscles from Brussels’ follows the path of his pal Sylvester Stallone whose upcoming film projects are also wisely selected in accordance with his increasing age.
Some of the other future projects of Jean-Claude Van Damme include the action-thriller ‘Black Water’ in which he partners with his longtime friend and colleague Dolph Lundgren.
He will also appear in the action movie ‘The Bouncer’ (2018) in which he will portray an aging nightclub bouncer.
It was recently announced that a sequel to the cult ‘Lionheart’ (1990) is in works too, so one thing is sure – Van Damme will rest in hell and we will have so much fun watching him doing what he does best.
Do you think that the movie will be good or it is going to be a failure? Speak your mind in the comments below!