Someone below asked about my experiences with Jean Claude Van Damme on TIMECOP... unfortunately, prepare yourselves for another underwhelming Hollywood story. I visited the Vancouver B.C. set of TIMECOP for just a day (welcome to the role of writers on big features!) and only met Van Damme briefly. But while walking the Time Enforcement Commission sets, I was surprised at how I kept bonking my head on the ceiling. Turns out the entire facility had been built low so Mr. Van Damme would look, well, taller. (I'm 6' 5"...)
My only other vaguely interesting Van Damme story came during the Planet Hollywood party in New York, following the movie's premiere. Van Damme was sitting in a front window, smoking a huge cee-gar, surrounded by bodyguards, and I had to be "vetted" by his guys before I was allowed in his presense. I felt like I was asking for an audience with a South American dictator. That said, Van Damme was pleasant in all our brief encounters, so I have no dark tales to tell...
Some may be curious if TIMECOP was always intended as a Van Damme vehicle. The truth is, I wrote the movie with an "Escape From New York" Kurt Russell in mind, but the studio wasn't high on Mr. Russell at the time, and they were wild for Jean Claude after HARD TARGET. Van Damme coming aboard led to the green light for the picture, so I will always be grateful to him for that. Interestingly, a few months later STARGATE was released, and Kurt Russell's star suddenly rose dramatically. So it goes...
Oh, and one more thing... even though I have a "characters created by" credit on TIMECOP 2, I had absolutely NOTHING, ZERO, NADA to do with that project. Dark Horse's Mike Richardson and I worked up a sequel idea soon after TIMECOP was released, but that never went forward. However, a couple years later I was involved in the short-lived TIMECOP TV series on ABC, which is another story for another time...
3 comments:
Never heard the Kurt Russell "Timecop" story. I've always liked Russell's work. Even his weaker films are watchable. But maybe I just like him because of his connections to "Bonanza" (his dad was Deputy Clem)and his ties to Elvis. Also, he played for the Portland Mavericks baseball team. So what's NOT to like!? Bonanza, Elvis, Portland...hell, that's good enough for me!
was timecop a comic that you wrote? I want to know how to get a comic into a movie?
You know, I've alwyas wondered what the real story behind Timecop was. I heard there were several Timecop scripts. Who came up with Timecop first, and how? is ther a story that tells how you or somebody thought it up?
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