An Interview with Sheldon Lettich

When the news broke earlier this year that author Corey Danna had written a book covering the amazing career of Sheldon Lettich and his contributions to the action movie genre, I knew it was a book I wanted to get my hands on.

Sheldon Lettich: From Vietnam to Van Damme is now available from Bear Manor Media and it has been getting nothing but rave reviews. As a fan of Bloodsport, Lionheart, Only the Strong and many of the other action films Sheldon Lettich had a hand in bringing to life, I can’t wait to carve out some time to enjoy the book for myself.

When the opportunity presented itself to shoot some questions to Sheldon Lettich about the book and his career, I wasn’t going to waste any time. So without any further adieu, here is my interview with Sheldon Lettich…

CTB: First off, thank you for your service. I had no idea you enlisted in the Marines and served in Vietnam until the press release for your book came out. Would you consider your decision to enlist one of the most important decisions of your life?

SL: It was my transition from adolescence to adulthood, which is what I’d hoped it would be.

CTB: The book, Sheldon Lettich: From Vietnam to Van Damme, features behind the scenes stories of the action classics you created alongside some of the greatest action heroes in history. But, was there a project or projects that you had your heart set on that never materialized?

SL: I mentioned a number of unfulfilled projects in the book, and there are almost too many to count.  Which should come as no surprise, because the ratio in Hollywood of projects that are developed versus projects that are actually made is roughly ten to one. 

There was a Sci-Fi action project titled “Atlas,” which I was slated to direct, and which had Van Damme on board to star, with Sam Raimi, Rob Tapert, and Rafaella DeLaurentiis as producers.  The script was by me and Chuck Pfarrer, who went on to write “Hard Target” and “Darkman.”  Dino DeLaurentiis’ company at the time (“D.E.G.”) was financing the project.  When the company went bankrupt, the project tumbled into limbo.

The project about military dune buggies in Iraq ,“Hell On Wheels,” was mentioned in the book.  I had an Israeli producer named Jacob Kotsky who optioned the script and was planning to film it in Israel, We were actually in the process of casting the movie in Los Angeles and scouting locations in Israel.  It was going to be an expensive movie, with lots of war scenes involving various military vehicles and aircrafts, but Jacob could not raise a sufficient budget.  That’s been the problem with a lot of my projects that never made it off the ground; I write TOO BIG!   I write projects that require a “Double Impact” sized budget, but when the numbers get crunched, the producers are only able to raise enough money to shoot something as big as “The Hard Corps.” 

“Hell On Wheels” didn’t move forward, but Kotsky used whatever money he had raised to shoot “The Last Patrol” instead.  That was actually filmed in Israel, and indirectly led to my next movie, “The Order, which was also filmed in Israel.  Because of my experience filming in Israel, I was able to secure my position on that one in good measure because Avi Lerner was impressed by my experience working with an Israeli crew, many of whom I carried over to work on “The Order” with me.

While I was in Vancouver working on “The Hard Corps,” Vivica Fox’s agent reached out to me and suggested that maybe I should try writing an action project expressly for Vivica, since she had acquired a certain amount of action credibility with her role in “Kill Bill.”  George Saunders and I put our heads together and we came up with a screenplay titled “Lioness,” about a female Military Intelligence officer, whose son is killed by a vicious street gang while she’s off serving in Afghanistan.  When the police are not able to solve the murder, nor bring the perpetrators to justice, Vivica’s character resigns her military commission and returns home, to take charge of the situation personally and to simultaneously protect her other son.  Vivica loved the script, and so did Van Damme, who wanted to help produce the movie and play one of the minor supporting characters.  He introduced me to one of his producers from “Wake Of Death,” a South African named Anton Ernst.  The script was optioned, and Anton flew me to South Africa for a few weeks to do some scouting, with intention of filming the movie in Cape Town, the same city where they had filmed “Wake Of Death.” 

The roadblock we encountered on that one was Vivica’s new agent (not the one who had reached out to me initially).   He wanted to prove to her that he would be her “Knight in Shining Armor” who would raise her salary to astronomical levels.  The numbers he was asking for were simply unrealistic, and far above what she was worth based on her box office numbers at that time.  Anton was taken aback, and so was Jean-Claude.  Her agent would not budge, and so we began looking elsewhere for another Black female who could carry an action picture.  Stars like Halle Berry or Kerry Washington would have been perfect for the role, but they were way out of our price range.  I flew back from South Africa, and the project simply folded for a while.  It’s recently been optioned once again, and we are now putting it together with Gillian White (the wife of Michael Jai White) to play the lead role.  Michael Jai would also be in the movie.  Stay tuned.

Another recent project, which germinated in active pre-production for quite some time, was titled “Metro Dog.”  This was a family-friendly story about a dog that gets separated from his family and winds up lost in the labyrinthine subway system beneath Moscow (which actually does have feral dogs that “commute” on the Metro trains).   The dog is befriended by a female violinist who plays for spare change in the depths of the vast Moscow Metro, and also by a tough Metro cop who is quietly enamored of the beautiful violinist.  When the violin is stolen, the dog and the cop team up to get it back to its rightful owner.  The screenplay was purchased (not just optioned) and the producers intended to actually film parts of the movie in Moscow.  My producers and I scouted a number of European cities to find a suitable location which would not present us with the many logistical problems that we would have encountered in Moscow.  I ended up scouting in Prague, Budapest, and Belgrade.  We finally settled on Belgrade as our principle location, and I spent a number of months there, scouting, casting, and designing sets. 

For a number of reasons, the project got derailed.  We had our violinist, an actress with personal ties to the financier who was funding the movie, but we needed a male star to play the cop.  Our first choice was Jean-Claude Van Damme, who was interested (he loves dogs!) but asked for more money than the producers were willing to pay.  We tried Scott Adkins, who was also interested, but we were unable to secure him either.  We ran into various other obstacles along the way, and now, of course, due to the ongoing war in Ukraine, the notion of filming an American movie in Moscow is strictly out of the question.

CTB: You and Jean-Claude Van Damme are the Martin Scorsese and Robert DeNiro of the action world. The two of you have made magic together. In your estimation, what makes you and JCVD such a winning team? Also, does Lionheart hold the record for most alternate names of any action movie?

SL: Jean-Claude and I just had similar sensibilities when it came to action movies.  Also, I believed in him as an actor when few others did, and he believed in me as a director.  We were both big fans of “Hard Times,” which starred Charles Bronson and was directed by Walter Hill.  That movie, in fact, became sort of a template for “Lionheart.”

Regarding the many titles, I’m quite sure that “Lionheart”/ “Wrong Bet”/ “Full Contact,” etc. does hold a record for the most alternate titles.  Unless you can point one out that has more.

CTB: You gave Mark Dacascos his first leading man role in Only the Strong, a movie that deserves more love (and a Blu-ray release) in my opinion. Mark was absolutely perfect for the role of Louis Stevens. Was that part written with Mark in mind? And if not how did you land on Mark as Louis Stevens?

SL: When Luis Esteban and I wrote the script, neither of us had even heard of Mark Dacascos.  Similarly, when I wrote “Bloodsport” I’d never heard of Jean-Claude Van Damme.  In both cases, we finessed the screenplays to fit the actors.  When we went searching for an actor to play Louis Stevens, Mark’s manager at the time, Cathryn Jaymes, got in touch with me personally and recommended Mark.  But the producers and the studio were all hesitant about him, so I suggested that we shoot a screen test, on 35mm film, that would showcase Mark’s acting abilities as well as his martial arts and gymnastics expertise.  The screen test convinced all the naysayers. 

CTB:  How did the opportunity to work with Sylvester Stallone and write Rambo III come about?

SL: I wrote a spec screenplay titled “Firebase,” a War movie that took place in Vietnam.  My agent at the time heard that Stallone was looking for a writer for “Rambo III,” and she sent him the script.  He read it, liked it, and his company made an offer to hire me for a three-picture deal, which included co-writing “Rambo III.”  When Stallone and I met face to face, we hit it off.  Turns out that both of us felt that the third Rambo movie should take place in Afghanistan. We both had ideas for a French Foreign Legion movie.  He wanted it to be a contemporary story, and I was talking about a period piece, which would have taken place during the “classic” Foreign Legion period, the ”Beau Geste” era, so to speak.  I ended up being hired by his company to write that contemporary version, which didn’t go anywhere.  But then later I worked on a historical version with Van Damme, and that one turned into the movie “Legionnaire.”

CTB: Can the action fanatics of the world expect more action projects coming from the mind of Sheldon Lettich in the future? Maybe a reunion or two with some old friends?

SL: As I mentioned above, there’s still some hope for “Lioness.”  And we’ve re-written “Metro Dog” so that it now takes place entirely in Prague, rather than Moscow.

CTB: Best of luck on bringing those projects to reality and thank you so much for your time. And for the action fanatics out there, be sure to pick up Sheldon Lettich: From Vietnam to Van Damme to get even more behind the scenes info about some of the most beloved action films of all-time!