Van Dammage: Boz Killer

"People still #$&* me.  It's very difficult to become...ah...invincible.  Stallone, Arnold and all those guys were screwed on the way up.  Oh my God!  Stories you wouldn't believe.  Me, too."
     Jean-Claude Van Damme

While digging through some items in storage I came across a couple press kits for JCVD flicks like Double Impact and Maximum Risk.  Double Impact was Van Damme's first decent budgeted flick but got short changed when fellow Stone Group Pictures production Stone Cold, featuring football player and wannabe movie star Brian Bosworth, went over budget.  While DI cost around $15 million, SC started at $10 then ended up costing around $25 million after original director Bruce Mulmuth (Steven Seagal's Hard to Kill) was fired weeks into production and replaced by Craig R. Baxley ( I COME IN PEACE!). 

Bosworth's football career had already stalled out after 3 years of injuries and more exciting trash talk than field stats.  After turning down small roles in Stallone pictures, The Boz was only interested in leading man status and was named Action Star of Tomorrow by The National Association of Theater Owners.  Articles compared him to established action icons Arnold, Stallone, Clint Eastwood, Chuck Norris and Steven Seagal while Van Damme's name is nowhere to be seen.  But like his gridiron days, Stone Cold quickly faded into obscurity as DI grossed a healthy $30 million while SC could only muster a take of $9 million.  Van Damme went on to star in his 2nd most successful movie, Universal Soldier while cementing his position as a challenger and usurper to Arnold Schwarzenegger while Bosworth wouldn't pop up in a movie for another 5 years.

It's not quite Cobra but still pretty Damme entertaining: