(Needless to say, the casting agents were “empress wid their performance.” I’ll see myself out. via Getty)
When it was announced that we would be seeing a Kickboxer remake starring Georges St. Pierre and Dave Bautista back in May, I had the totally reasonable reaction of threatening to “eat a baby” if a remake of The Raid was also announced, which happened just days later. True to my word, I am now on something of a hiatus from public life, and would just like to let Mrs. Annabelle Smith of 247 Bakersfield Road, MN know that it was nothing personal.
Aaaaaaanyway, a press release sent out by Radar Films earlier this week (which we would have brought to you yesterday had CP’s mainframe not imploded) announced that another familiar face to MMA fans would be joining the project as well: former Strikeforce champ and In the Blood star Gina Carano. Carano has been cast as “Vixen”, a fight promoter and “boa constrictor of this fighting jungle” who hopefully wears outfits like this and bites her lip a lot.
Random thought: Remember when Gina Carano was supposedly signing with the UFC? Yeah, me neither.
The Kickboxer remake was briefly set to also star Tony Jaa in the “Master Chow” role until a scheduling conflict forced him out of the film. Taking his place will be none other than original Kickboxer star (and close friend of St. Pierre) Jean Claude Van Damme, who signed onto the film last week. I can only hope that they change the character’s name in light of this, but then again, seeing Van Damme attempt to play Taiwanese would be as hilarious as, well, his attempts to play American.
I’ll say it again because it’s even more relevant now, but if this movie doesn’t feature some sort of capoeira-infused dance off between St. Pierre and Van Damme, it will have been an entirely pointless endeavor.
