Ultimate Dolph

Oh yeah that was a great story/anecdote from Bryan HIll!

On Amazon Prime UK under its US title
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/video/detail/B07M6YH99G

Writer Bryan E. Hill (who went on to have a great career, in comics / graphic novels among other things):
https://twitter.com/bryanedwardhill/sta ... 4384952320

Dolph's amazing. First job and he flew me out to his home in Spain. We watched Leone movies and John Ford films and talked westerns before we developed the script. He loves film and never treated me like I didn't know what I was doing... even though I didn't know what I was doing.

Writer Bryan E. Hill:

ZONE 414 will be the second produced script.

The first was THE RUSSIAN SPECIALIST from back in the day. Shout out to @Dolph_Lundgren

Dolph was one of the FIRST people to believe in me. Real talk. He got the whole thing started. Always have love and respect for him.

https://twitter.com/bryanedwardhill/sta ... 2767279104

Quick Dolph story.

I wrote THE RUSSIAN SPECIALIST with him in Spain. He made sure I was comfortable and felt welcome the whole time. He let me borrow his phone to call international to my mother. I broke it. He just gave me another.

He also had the HE-MAN sword in his house.

https://twitter.com/bryanedwardhill/sta ... 0324953088

Dropped it down an escalator. I was VERY nervous. First job. First time in Spain. Dolph was/is a hero of mine. He was patient with my dumb ass, hahahaha.

https://twitter.com/bryanedwardhill/sta ... 4079138816

New episode is here, this time discussing one of D’s best films — the violent and gritty gem that is THE RUSSIAN SPECIALIST! Brenton Haysom From All Outta Bubblegum joins the show once again to chat Lundgren’s second round as star-director! Listen in as we gladly crack open a couple Russian stouts to commemorate this film from 2006!

https://imustbreakthispodcast.wordpress ... -mechanik/

As always, please feel free to rate and review the show on iTunes, Stitcher, or wherever you go to subscribe!

Loved listening to this one. Hit on all the points as to why it's one of Dolph's best.

Finally listened to it!

I hope you don't mind me contributing with a few notes:

- I think forgot to mention THE MINION in which Dolph also played a supposedly Russian character

- Now believe me or not, Dolph did not consciously think of RED SCORPION (or THE PUNISHER as mentioned) when he crafted THE MECHANIK or named his character...! But the subconscious may have made its way into his creative process...?
What was in his mind was to make a kind of hybrid Clint Eastwood / Charles Bronson / Sam Peckinpah type of "noir western". Also OPEN RANGE had come out the year they filmed THE MECHANIK, and I think it influenced him quite a bit as well for the big finale...

- They actually did go to St. Petersburg to film for a couple of days with Ben Cross, DP Ross Clarkson, and a small crew (just like they did in Moscow for COMMAND PERFORMANCE).

- Sony did not have any pull or say in the editing or else, they picked up the US distribution rights quite late in the game. Then when it did well they approached Dolph to make a movie for them and they financed MISSIONARY MAN, cheaply (budget was maybe half of THE MECHANIK or less), and with more control, which did not help... The 90-95 minutes rule is a usual thing with distributors worldwide for these kind of films so they can easily sell the TV rights so that's like an unwritten rule not to hit 100 min or even 95.

- TAKEN had Luc Besson and his EuropaCorp studio behind it. They had pull, money, a reportedly $20-25 million movie, and a lot of influence in the business (plus a widely renown star) so of course it got a wide theatrical release worldwide even though yes, it's essentially the same of kind of film as THE MECHANIK...

RIP Ben Cross...

Heard yesterday, what a shame. 72 is pretty young these days. He was one of Dolph's most charismatic co-stars.

RIP indeed.
He was so good in The Mechanik. Really elevated the movie with his sincere, funny and emotional performance.

Unofficial Spanish edition coming March 9 (info courtesy of Scorpio)
https://diversionyocio.es/es/catalogo/1 ... 08471.html

It was my favorite Dolph movie as a director (now Castle Falls is).
This morning I heard the news, and I got a good surprise.

It is one of his very best both as an actor and a director...

Let's hope to get a NTSC Blu Ray soon. All European Blu ray are in PAL and many people when see the runtime 90 minutes PAL think this is a cut version. This difference 3 % speed up PAL always bothered people in the last 30 years. We need one unique standard and region free disc all around the world.DVD era is gone and in digital era the quality of sound and video is not affected anymore by this systems.

Sorry to burst your bubble but that is incorrect:

The only variance with Blu-rays is the region coding (A, B, C, region-free).

They all work at 24 frames per sec (same as 35mm film) and full HD is the same everywhere worldwide. There is no NTSC (30 fps) or PAL (25 fps) color systems when you deal with HD (and therefore Blu-rays). Only a few lower-res 1080i (not to be confused with 1080p) videos will run at 25 fps.

The old PAL, NTSC or even SECAM color systems and their speed differences only related to previous video standards and formats such as VHS, Betacam, or DVDs.