Christopher Lambert has joined the cast of Kickboxer: Retaliation. Lambert’s casting teams him with Jean-Claude Van Damme to meld two of the great genre movies Highlander and Kickboxer, movies that motivate audiences years after their initial box office releases. Kickboxer: Retaliation is the second installment in a trilogy reboot of 1989’s hit action film Kickboxer.
Kickboxer: Retaliation picks up where Kickboxer: Vengeance leaves off with Kurt Sloan, Alain Moussi continuing as the lead character, in Thailand fending for his life against a new formidable foe, Mongkut, portrayed by Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson (“Game of Thrones”). Lambert will portray Thomas Moore, a wealthy ex pat, who in his youth was a consummate martial artist and is currently the Godfather of Underground fighting in Thailand. He’s a purist that believes Muay Thai fighters who fight to the death are warriors. A master-manipulator, he has influence everywhere and of course with the use of his money, he is able to imprison Kurt Sloan in order to make him fight a monster. Moore does not accept the word “No.” With a state of the art scientist, using HGH, steroids and other concoctions, in his own lab, Moore has created Mongkut, 6′ 9″ and over 400 hundred pounds of Muay Thai destruction, Moore wants to use Sloan’s fame as world champion to advance his man by pitting the two champions, “David Vs Goliath,’ against each other in the ring.
“We’re thrilled to be adding Christopher Lambert to the cast. Joining the fan bases of both ‘Highlander’ and ‘Kickboxer’ is a box-office dream come true,” said producer Rob Hickman. “Martial arts aficionados and fantasy fans alike will be pleased in the pairing of Lambert with Van Damme.”
Dimitri Logothetis, who owns the rights to the Kickboxer franchise and wrote and produced Kickboxer: Vengeance, serves as writer and director on Retaliation had this to say about Lambert, “Having Christopher Lambert be part of this film, a Cesar Award winning actor, whose resume of iconic film roles ranges from Tarzan in ‘Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes’ to Connor MacLeod in ‘Highlander’ to Lord Raiden in ‘Mortal Kombat,’ is something that will thrill our comic con fans.”
Kickboxer: Retaliation is currently filming principal photography on location in Thailand with additional filming taking place in California and Nevada.
Logothetis’ Acme Rocket Fuel has teamed with Our House Films as the production houses behind Kickboxer: Retaliation with Hickman and Logothetis producing and Larry Nealy, Jay Strommen and Steven Swadling serving as executive producers.
The first film in the trilogy, Kickboxer: Vengeance stars Van Damme, Moussi, Dave Bautista and Gina Carano and hits theaters and VOD on September 2, 2016.
