Let’s face it. After losing Tony Jaa and Scott Adkins, a lot of fans were dimming from any enthusiasm they may have had earlier on for Radar Pictures’s now-current production of Kickboxer, a revamp the 1989 martial arts thriller of the same name. Thankfully though, things have been turning around with surprising announcements left and right, with a sprawling cast list led by martial artist and stuntman Alain Moussi making his big screen acting debut, and now, the roster just got even better.
While it is not known how big the role will be, Fast And Furious 6 and Blood And Bone co-star, mixed-martial artist-turned-actress Gina Carano will be playing a fight promoter in the new film according to The Hollywood Reporter. The film reunites the actress with director John Stockwell since working together on Carano‘s previous action vehicle, In The Blood, and also leaves room to speculate on whether or not the nature of Carano‘s role will be aligned with that of Moussi, or similar to that of the supporting antagonist character, Freddy Lee, played by actor Ka Ting Lee in the original.
Carano joins Moussi along with a stellar cast that sees lead character, Kurt Sloane, whose mission to avenge the death of his brother, Eric, at the hands of vicious Muay Thai brawler, Tong Po, draws him in the throes of Eric’s reluctant master whose training will take him on a grueling physical and spiritual journey that will test his courage and will. Carano also rejoins her fellow Bus 657 co-star and newly-cast Spectre co-star, actor Dave Bautista who will play Tong Po. Action star Darren Shahlavi will play Eric while actress Sara Malakul Lane will play Kurt’s love interest who investigates Eric’s death, and the star of the original film, action legend Jean-Claude Van Damme will reprise the role of the master intially played by Dennis Chan in the first film. UFC welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre, and The Martial Arts Kid co-stars, T.J. Storm and Matthew Ziff round out the current cast.
As a noteworthy mention, updates are still pending regarding Carano‘s most recently talked-about involvement on director Justin Steele’s latest thriller, The Opium War, which underwent production last month according to earlier reports. Perhaps we will learn more about that production in its hopeful existence in due time. In the meantime, Kickboxer is due next year.
Stay tuned for more info!