Not to be downtrodden too much by this, however, Pyun, is still letting the creative juices flow and is reportedly developing another project in the form of Cyborg Knight. Pyun and wife and partner Cynthia Curnan wrote this particular script which ultimately returns our director to the cyberpunk genre with a story that mainly circulates its theme on Pyun‘s condition.
2015 is going to be a year full of kickboxing cinemafare between two entirely seperate projects, including filmmaker Albert Pyun who has been pretty busy plotting his own return to the Kickboxer fray having previously directed two of the films from the franchise dating back to 1989. The nature of Pyun‘s return has remained in constant development for a while in making whatever changes were required for the project. Now, the director is taking to Facebook to shed some more light on the progress he’s making with the story, the characters and the cast and crew he plans on bringing aboard.
Newly titled, The Kickboxer: City Of Blood, lead actor and martial artist Sasha Mitchell will star in a newly revamped story to portray troubled UN peacekeeper, David Anderson, forced underground through near century-old World War II tunnels to evading Myanmar’s secret police while protecting a young witness to a slate of political murders. Pyun reunites with Mitchell who starred in three of all five Kickboxer movies in which Pyun directed two, along with actress Clare Kramer following her performance in Pyun‘s 2012 flick, Road To Hell, while Hercules actor Kevin Sorbo rejoins with Pyun once more since appearing in the 2010 film, Tales Of An Ancient Empire. Mark Dacascos, who previously starred in helmer Kristine Peterson’s Kickboxer: Redemption (1995) is currently in the running to play the villain. Other casting to be determined includes the announcements of actors Michael Tushaus, Scott Paulin, Norbert Weisser and Dennis Chan who also starred in several of the original Kickboxer movies as Muay Thai master Xian Chow.
Pyun is now working to enlist a crew of familar faces to help formulate the new movie in addition to his director of photography on Cyborg Nemesis and Road To Hell, Mike Su, his composer on Heatseeker and Kickboxer 2 and 4, Tony Riparetti, and the hopeful recruitment of Cyborg editor Rozanne Zingale. Impact Online’s own Mike Leeder will be co-producing the film, which could potentially bring Dacascos aboard for the film having just completed the second feature-length project under Leeder’s Silent Partners banner, Ultimate Justice, due out in 2015 as well. This may also depend on how things will look as Dacascos has also been tied to the forthcoming production of Indonesian action thriller, Garuda 7, and both productions are expected to commense in January which may be cutting it close unless things change.
Pyun is aiming The Kickboxer: City Of Blood, to be his biggest film to date as shooting readies for Guangzhou, China over at ACE Studios at the end of January next month with the hopes of a Cannes screening in the following May. Further updates are still pending for who will fit the other shoes to be worn for this ambitious new reinstallation of thrilling martial arts action. So stay tuned for more information as it comes.
H/T: Albert Pyun