Jean-Claude Van Damme is back and he’s playing himself. Check out the trailer and teaser (below) for JCVD. Opens Friday in NY and LA. I cannot wait to see this.

From Wikipedia: JCVD is a French meta-action film directed by Mabrouk El Mechri starring Jean-Claude Van Damme as the title role. Van Damme plays himself, a down-and-out action star whose family and career are crumbling around him, as he’s caught in a bank heist in his hometown of Brussels, Belgium. JCVD is Jean-Claude Van Damme’s filmed redemption; a weary hero’s only shot to get back what he lost with fame.

The filmmaker was most prominently influenced by Jean-Luc Godard[6] and collaborations between Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman. El Mechri said about Being John Malkovich[1] “Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman were very successful in the abyss of a man who plays in a fiction. Their work on the deconstruction of fame is brilliant.”

El Mechri’s main visual influence was Robert Richardson, who was the cinematographer on a number of Oliver Stone and Martin Scorsese films. Directorial influences include the likes of Robert Wise (The Day the Earth Stood Still), Sidney Lumet (Dog Day Afternoon), P.T. Anderson (There Will Be Blood), and Chan-wook Park (Oldboy). El Mechri says that his favorite Van Damme film is Bloodsport.