john salvitti

AMBUSH: Twenty Years Later, John Salvitti Completes His Long-Awaited Cerebral Crime Thriller

Seasoned stunt professional, action director John Salvitti (Pound Of Flesh, Special ID, Tiger Cage 2) has come a long way with his new movie, Ambush, now putting out a new trailer following updates late last year. The psycholgical thriller will be his feature debut, originally titled Red Thread for its production twenty years ago before being shelved due to a number of factors he elucidated over the weekend to Mike Leeder at MAAC. “It was a very ambitious idea but it hadn’t turned out the way I wanted.” says Salvitti, who later went into the six-year process of hitting the reset button and reviving the self-funded project with a load of reshoots, new shoots and re-editing and mixing. “Once I completed putting the movie together, then the real post production began and that also proved to be a battle but I embraced the challenge. So much changed and it felt […]

John Salvitti’s AMBUSH Goes For The Psychedelic In The First Teaser Trailer

Lee B. Golden III

Having been one of action cinema’s most influential stalwarts in the last three decades, it’s pretty clear venerable fight choreographer and actor John Salvitti (In The Line Of Duty 4, Flash Point, Pound Of Flesh) would want to carry over his creative stride to the director’s chair. He’s certainly doing so with Ambush, pivoting from his genre roots and into a much different playing field with New York theater actor Maxx Black leading the cast. Black stars as a Kal, a visitor in Los Angeles on a mission to rescue his captive girlfriend while enduring a lingering case of PTSD that now leaves him on the brink of an unstoppable violent streak. City On Fire forwarded the news late Thursday evening, citing Salvitti who describes the film accordingly: “It’s sort of in the vein of Fight Club with the PTSD/split personality. The story centers on issues we see everyday in […]

Hong Kong Veteran John Salvitti To AMBUSH Audiences For His Directorial Debut

Lee B. Golden III

When you look at veteran martial artist and fight coordinator John Salvitti, you’re looking at someone who has cut his teeth to a great deal over the last several decades dating back to the proliferation of Hong Kong cinema. Thus, having worked with the likes of Donnie Yen, Jet Li, Zhang Yimou and Yuen Woo-Ping in addition to his experience in law enforcement, he has since continued to further help influence how action is translated for the screen, and much to the favor of his own offering in the now-branded Salvitti Supa Scraps, most recently in Ernie Barbarash’s 2015 thriller, Pound Of Flesh. As such, he’s been working on a script for sometime now in the course of building toward his own debut, and as per news forwarded via City On Fire, that effort now includes secured funding for his directorial debut, Ambush. Story details are nil while Salvitti describes […]

THE HIT LIST – July 11, 2016

Lee B. Golden III

Well, this week’s Hit List comes at an opportune moment with several gems worth sharing on top of this week’s fully-loaded stunt reels. I might take a break next week (or not), but in case I decide to, I’ve made sure to load up on quite a bit of material. In the meantime, let’s make this a worthwhile Hit List to enjoy and for this, we get a great new playlist full of stunt and action demo reels by great guys and gals like Shawn Bernal and Luci Romberg. Following that are videos by Isky Fay, Lloyd Pitts, Jake Osborn, Andrew DiBartolomeo, Andrew J. Neis, Monica Aleman, Stephen A. Davis, Kiril Kostadinov, Dennis Lafond and Bobby Holland Hanton. The last video in the playlist comes courtesy of someone whose passion for martial arts in sport and on film run as deep as the cuts and bruises stunt performers endure to create and entertain. […]

Watch John Salvitti Go To Work In A New POUND OF FLESH Action Featurette!

Lee B. Golden III

Hopefully you’ve been motivated to check out action star Jean-Claude Van-Damme‘s latest blistering performance in director Ernie Barbarash‘s latest thriller, Pound Of Flesh. If not, then perhaps my earlier review will get the juices going, lest you miss out on one of the seasoned martial arts star’s most sizzling and brutal performances to date. Writer Joshua James lends his script to a story that sees a former operative taking on Macau’s criminal underworld when a good Samaritan act results in a stolen kidney with his dying niece’s life on the line. The action gets unapologetically violent and bloody, and the man assigned to designate the brutality is none other than Hong Kong veteran stuntman and fight choreographer John Salvitti who’s latest video presents a brief look into some of the action with great highlights to boot. And yes, he’s Boston-born so Dropkick Murphys for the win! Check it out right […]

Screener Review: POUND OF FLESH (2015)

Lee B. Golden III

SYNOPSIS: In South Asia to donate his kidney to his dying niece, former black-ops agent Deacon awakes the day before the operation to find he is the latest victim of organ theft. Stitched up and pissed-off, Deacon descends from his opulent hotel in search of his stolen kidney and carves a blood-soaked path through the darkest corners of the city. The clock is ticking for his niece and with each step he loses blood. REVIEW: Action superstar Jean-Claude Van Damme‘s career revival in recent years has induced a much-deserved resurgence in fandom, and for good reason. Having earned his way upward as an action film legend in well over twenty-five years, his acting muscles have lately grown just as prominently with age in films like JCVD, Universal Soldier: Regeneration and Day Of Reckoning, and Enemies Closer, and to this, his latest contribution with the new action thriller, Pound Of Flesh, […]

THE HIT LIST – March 2, 2015

Lee B. Golden III

Oh look! More videos. It’s funny, really. I always expect to run short every week and I usually end up with at least 20 or more. This week I’m just shy of a few and I wouldn’t be surprised if I missed any. Some of these gems are not easily detectable through simple searches. Anyway, let’s get this list started with some tricking and stunting reels! Martial Club founding member Andy Le‘s is up first and while this isn’t his first appearance in a Hit List article, it probably won’t be the last. The reel slate also includes stuntmen Brian Ho, Alfred Hsing, Daniel Graham, Vincent DeComo Helvetic Tricking’s latest feats within lush Swiss locales, a Bear Grylls Adventure segment featuring Greek traceur, Maria Raptaki!, and some kickass GoPro training with Hong Kong fight choreographer, Pound Of Flesh action director John Salvitti! Brian Ho – Stunt Demo 2015 from Brian […]

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Go Pound For Pound With The Cast And Crew Of POUND OF FLESH In A New Ten-Minute Featurette!

Lee B. Golden III

eOne is poised to release action star Jean-Claude Van Damme‘s latest action thriller, Pound Of Flesh in the U.S. this May while other territories currently await dates from their respective distributors. In the meantime, while it will be a few months before the film arrives so we can expect some more promotional gems to roll out between now and then. That means, among other things, featurettes! And with specific thanks to the wandering eyes over at the Expendables Premiere fansite, there’s a new ten-minute behind-the-scenes video now online for those curious to check out below. In it, you get smores of feedback and action-packed footage including Van Damme himself, who leads the film as a former black-ops agent on the hunt for the criminal network responsible for the heinous theft of his kidney in China with the life of his niece on the line. You also get to hear from […]

JCVD Starrer POUND OF FLESH Gets An Extended Promo (NSFW)

Lee B. Golden III

Keeping up with the promotional campaign for director Ernie Barbarash‘s new action thriller, Pound Of Flesh, has been a bit more of a cat-and-mouse game while its owners at ACE Entertainment LLC. kept ordering take downs of its initally-leaked unofficial trailer last month. Thankfully, the trailer has managed to stay in one place or a couple after a while as the footage has already earned the appeal of fans awaiting to see lead action star Jean-Claude Van Damme back in the fray with a release date pending, and thus, the campaign continues! A new promotional reel was released over the weekend with a much more extended look at the film which pits Van Damme in the role of Deacon, an ex black-ops agent in China to donate his kidney to his dying niece until a tryst with a mysterious woman ensues with the theft of his kidney, forcing him into […]

JCVD Pounds Away In The New Unofficial Teaser For POUND OF FLESH

Lee B. Golden III

Well, if there’s one thing we can all look forward to in 2015, it’s another awesome action movie, and for fans of leading man Jean-Claude Van Damme, that very day will come upon the release of his third stint with 6 Bullets and Assassination Games helmer, director Ernie Barbarash in the new thriller, Pound Of Flesh. This time, Van Damme is taking no prisoners as an ex-military man, waking up one morning in a bloody ice bath with a missing kidney devoted to his dying niece, infiltrating China’s seedy underbelly to retrive it before it is sold to the highest bidder. Regular Donnie Yen cohort, fight coordinator and choreographer John Salvitti lends his own system of Salvitti Super Scraps methodology to the screenfighting foray with Bruce Law Stunts Unlimited designing the vehicular action, and we finally have some unofficial teaser footage that samples all this, with the biggest pay-off at […]

Van Damme Kicks Into Action For Barbarash's Newly-Wrapped POUND OF FLESH

Lee B. Golden III

Believe it or not, this is all we are going to get to see until a proper trailer airs for the forthcoming release of director Ernie Barbarash‘s newest Canadian indie action thriller, Pound Of Flesh. Filmed on-location in Guangdong, China from a script by Joshua James, the film marks Van Damme‘s third outing with Barbarash since 6 Bullets and the Scott Adkins co-starrer, Assassination Games. The film was announced back in January with Van Damme set to portray an ex-military man on a mission to find the people who left him for dead in a bathub full of ice and stole his kidney-originally intended for the dying daughter of his estranged brother. Principal photography has already wrapped after a three month shoot that began in March, joining Van Damme with action cinema superstar Darren Shahlavi, as well as John Ralston, Marsha Yuen, Jason Tobin, Andrew Ng and veteran actor Aki […]

A Lone Cop Fights His Way From Behind Enemy Lines In The New Promo For SPECIAL ID

Lee B. Golden III

Easternlight Films and Starlit Group have released a brand new international promo for director Clarence Fok‘s upcoming MMA cop thriller, Special ID. The new promo shows brand new footage and displays a continuation of the film’s preconditioned promise to dazzle the world audience when the film is released in Hong Kong starting on October 18, 2013. The film stars international action sensation Donnie Yen leading the way also as co-producer and action choreography aided by his team, notably including action cinema veterans John Salvitti, Kenji Tanigaki and precision stunt coordinator Bruce Law. The film also stars Police Story 2013 co-star Jing Tian, along with legendary screenfighting actors Ken Lo and Andy On, with Hanyu Zhang and Qi Daji rounding out the main cast. Other release dates are currently pending. SYNOPSIS: Yen takes on the role of Zilong Chen, an undercover police officer deep within the ranks of one of China’s most […]

John Salvitti Pays Tribute To His Mentor, Donnie Yen In A New BTS Look At SPECIAL ID

Lee B. Golden III

Today we have a brand new featurette for the upcoming mixed martial arts cop thriller, Special ID, directed by Clarence Fok. The footage is a tribute to lead action star coming directly from the YouTube account of multi-faceted actor, fight choreographer and Martial Arts Hall Of Fame inductee, John Salvitti. Featuring music by Eminem from the inspirational soundtrack of the 2002 hip hop drama, 8 Mile, the reel is a brilliant compilation of behind-the-scenes gems that take you directly to the set of the upcoming action thriller starring international action star Donnie Yen, with Salvitti front and center. For the unengaged, Salvitti is a long time friend and partner of Yen, with roots in Hong Kong cinema dating back to roles in such films as In The Line Of Duty 4, Tiger Cage, Crystal Hunt and Cheetah On Fire. According to The Stunt People blogger and independent filmmaker Eric Jacobus, […]