UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: DAY OF RECKONING (John Hyams, 2012)

[preacher]

From Scott's twitter:

"Rehearsing with Dolph yesterday, great guy and very good with choreography. Looking forward to fighting with the best Punisher!"

Dolph vs Adkins? Hell yeah!
Could be very cool with their different styles.

[Jox]

Sounds good! Cool to hear Scott acknowledges Dolph as the best Punisher, I'm sure he is a fan who grew up watching his films as well (Adkins is barely 35 years old), these two should get along well!

[Krom]

Scott it's a great guys, i had lunch with him couple of times and we both shared out thought about the best of the best action guys from 80-90 like Dolph, Arnold, Sly and JC.

[Geoff]

I am now loving the sound of this, I felt that US3 was good but very underused for DL so its good to know he has more going on in this one. I have still missed out on whats its about tho.

[riotgirl77]

[Jox]

Adkins tweet:

Van Damme kicked my ass today! Always a pleasure.

[Jox]

FAN-MADE POSTER BY OUR OWN DRAGONRAGE

[Jox]

Scott:

Universal Soldier: New Dimension is looking great guys. I have very high hopes. Happy for a long weekend break and recuperation.

[Jox]

A pic from the set with John Hyams, Arnold Chon (Asian biker from WAKE OF DEATH, champion of artistic kata) and Van Damme

[leigh1975]

UNISOL 4 baffles me... I'm hearing all these rumours about how they have 'theatrical release' hopes, but seriously, what is this based upon? I mean, could anybody honestly say 3 was a polished theatrical contender? I liked it, but still, it would have looked cheap and nasty on such a huge screen. Plus, seeing as the third has gone to video in the majority of the worldwide market, I can't see 4 reverting to cinemas. I don't recall that ever happening with a franchise...

[Jox]

Whether it will reach the big screen or not is too soon to say for sure until they have at least a decent cut for test screening, but there are indeed talks of a theatrical release among high placed people involved with the production and distribution of the movie. And it's not just the 3D factor (a lot of DTV movies are being produced in 3D (and it's not that just more expensive, just a percentage of the budget which can be high or lower), since the previous entry THE EXPENDABLES proved the renewed interest in the genre and they probably are betting on surfing on THE EXPENDABLES 2 wave with the hope that Van Damme will have shot his part by then. From what I heard UNISOL 3 looked really good on the big screen when it premiered at the Fantastic Fest. I don't get my hopes up either but who knows there's can be a first to anything.

[leigh1975]

If Sony buy the movie for North America again, it's DTV, which would be a shame. They are notoriously penny pinching when it comes to theatrical versus straight to video. Am I right in thinking UNISOL 2 was almost DTV in the west until they did a limited theatrical run???

[savagesketch]

I remember Unisol 2 being released to theatres in the US and having an extremely limited run... I remember actually seeing it opening night and being one of the few in the theatre. Needless to say, it didn't last much longer than a week. It's pretty bad... and surprising that it went to theatres; it screams DTV.

It's a pretty safe bet that Sony will put this DTV. It almost seems like the safer bet, especially considering Unisol 3 did so well upon its release. Jox -- if your guess is that they're hoping to release this to ride on the coattails of Expendables 2, whose release date is still a little up in the air at this point, does this mean that we won't see Unisol 4 until late 2012???

[leigh1975]

UNISOL 2 was released in the UK for about three days in a very limited run, as far as I know it only played in London in one cinema, the famous Trocadero. They were very touchy with it. However, consider Van Damme had gone straight to video for years in the UK at that time (Yes, of course that was the general fate of Legionnaire and Desert Heat in most territories, but i believe Double Team, Knock Off and possibly even Maximum Risk was DTV in the UK), and it's not as dreadful a fate as it seems for the franchise. VD had simply lost box office pull, regardless of the quality of this sequel

[Jox]

UNISOL 2 had had a fair release in France and a few other countries and bombed a month or two before landing in the US and UK. MAXIMUM RISK, DOUBLE TEAM, KNOCK OFF and LEGIONNAIRE (INFERNO went DTV in 2002) all came out her'e theatrically and did so so, VD's star (and all the other old school muscled action stars) was definitely going down.