Netflix just keeps the content coming, and their newest project will have Jean-Claude Van Damme in the lead role. Van Damme has recently started shooting a new action-comedy titled The Last Mercenary for the streaming service, which will be directed by David Charhon and will star Alban Ivanov, Assa Sylla, Samir Decazza, Patrick Timsit, Eric Judor, and Miou-Miou (via THR). Charhon and Ismael Sy Savane wrote the script for the film that will have Van Damme starring as a former secret service agent that ends up having to return to action when his estranged son is falsely accused or arms and drug trafficking because of a blunder by an overzealous bureaucrat in the middle of a mafia operation. Sounds like something perfect for Van Damme, and he couldn’t be more thrilled about it.
“The Last Mercenary is an incredibly exciting project and allows me to take on a new genre,” Van Damme said. “I’ve always been a fan of Jean-Paul Belmondo and I hope to take up the torch of action comedy in my own way. David Charhon’s script brings all these elements together in a very successful way – a beautiful story with emotion, a lot of action and a lot of humour.”
Videos by ComicBook.com
“I’m also very happy to work alongside a new generation of talent such as Alban Ivanov, Assa Sylla and Samir Decazza, but also to be reunited on screen with the creme de la creme of French actors such as Patrick Timsit, Eric Judor, Miou-Miou and Valérie Kaprisky,” Van Damme said.
For Charhon, this was the perfect way to capture the energy of those classic action films from the 80s and 90s. “I want to return to the great tradition of action films of the ’80s and ’90s — those cult films we all love where the heroes were out of the ordinary, the stunts were all more impressive and truer than life, and all punctuated with humour. Only Jean-Claude could embody this unparalleled golden age of cinema.”
Gaëlle Mareschi, creative manager at Netflix France said: “We are very excited to welcome the great legend of action cinema, JCVD, in tandem with the inexorable Alban Ivanov, surrounded by a myriad of great French talent, all in an extremely fun and original film proposition orchestrated by David Charhon.”
No release date was announced, but we’ll keep you posted.
Are you excited for The Last Mercenary? Let us know in the comments!
