Brainwaves: Ask the Brain 2.0

I know I speak for everyone on the Bulletproof Action staff when I say one of the best things about writing for this site is the opportunity to interact with fellow action movie fanatics from around the world.

There are times we get fans debating our opinions on a particular movie, we often get fans sharing their love for a particular action star or movie, other times we get fans suggesting movies for us to watch and review on the site and then from time to time we get questions.

In this edition of Brainwaves I will do my best to answer some of the questions we receive here at the site in a segment I like to call Ask the Brain!

1. Why wasn’t Jason Gedrick a part of Iron Eagle IV: On the Attack? 

This is a great question and one I’d certainly ask Jason Gedrick myself if I ever had the opportunity to speak to him.

I’m only speculating here but I would say the most likely answer is that his television commitments at the time prevented Gedrick from being available to be a part of Iron Eagle IV. Gedrick was in the short lived series Sweet Justice in 1994 and another short lived series, Murder One, in 1995

Another possibility is that Gedrick was asking for too much money or the producers were offering him too little. If you’ve seen Iron Eagle IV, you know it didn’t have the budget of the original or even the first two sequels, so it is quite possible the two sides could not settle on a figure that made both happy. The fact that Iron Eagle IV was filmed in Canada could have also caused problems and added expense in bringing in American actors and filing all the necessary work permit. In fact, I believe Louis Gossett Jr. is the only American actor in the entire movie.

Or it could have been that Gedrick had no interest in being a part of the movie. And if you’ve ever seen it you know he made the right choice.

The greater question in all this is why wasn’t Gedrick a part of Iron Eagle II. His involvement in the first sequel would have changed the course of Iron Eagle franchise history. If he turned down Iron Eagle II so he could be the star of Rooftops, he made the wrong choice.

2. Did the film Willow make a profit? 

With a budget of $35 million, Willow did turn a slight profit bringing in more than $57 million world wide.  There was also some Willow merchandising, so that was another revenue stream for the film.

Despite making money, Willow was not a huge financial success and probably would have been dubbed a disappointment by the studio executives who were no doubt hoping that this George Lucas creation would do even  10% of the numbers Lucas’ Star Wars franchise did.

3. Why did they stop dubbing Sho Kosugi’s voice in his movies? 

I would imagine as Kosugi gained experience working in the motion picture industry and had more practice mastering the English language, producers started feeling more comfortable with Kosugi providing his own dialogue.

The same type of thing happened with Arnold Schwarzenegger in his first film, Hercules in New York. His voice was dubbed for the theatrical release and his name simplified to Arnold Strong as well to make it more palatable for the audiences in the United States. Eventually Hercules in New York would be released with Arnold’s actual voice for the home video market and obviously Arnold would go on to provide his own distinct voice to his future films.

4. Was the fight scene in Cyborg between Vincent Klyn and Jean-Claude Van Damme real? 

I have never heard that the fight in Cyborg between Van Damme and Klyn (who plays Fender Tremolo to Van Damme’s Gibson Rickenbacker) was anything but your typical highly choreographed action movie fight scene.

However things got very real for  Jackson “Rock” Pinckney, who played one of Fender’s pirates named Tytus. During his fight with Van Damme, JCVD accidentally struck Pinckney in the eye with a prop knife. Pinckney would lose the eye but go on to win a lawsuit for nearly a half million dollars. Interestingly enough, the scene where Pinckney lost the eye did actually make the final cut of the film.

For all the legal talk and details of the PINCKNEY v. VAN DAMME lawsuit, click here!

5. Who was the stripper in Under Siege? 

The lovely Erika Eleniak was the stripper in question in Under Siege. Prior to her role in Under Siege, Erika graced the pages of Playboy magazine, back in a time when smoking hot ladies like Erika would get naked in that publication.  Nowadays the ladies don’t get quite naked but the magazine still boasts provocative interviews and riveting articles like the one they did that inspired a lawsuit and the movie Beyond the Law.

Erika was also one of the many blonde bombshells to light up television screens all over the globe on the hit show, Baywatch. Her action entertainment career continued post-Under Siege in movies like Stealth Fighter, Betrayal and Dracula 3000.