Cung Le on ‘Tekken,’ ‘Bodyguards’ and fight work

Popular Vietnamese-American kickboxer and MMA fighter Cung Le recently spoke to film site Rama’s Screen to discuss his current and future projects and plans in the film industry. Not only is he making some exciting appearances in film, such as tangling with Donnie Yen in BODYGUARDS AND ASSASSINS, but he also prepping several leading roles in action films and he repeatedly states his interest in directing his own screen fighting.

Cung Le’s film career is off to a good start despite the fact that the first action film he starred in, BLIZHNIY BOY: THE ULTIMATE FIGHTER, has been shelved since 2007 as a result of financing problems. Le is currently co-starring in the well-received sci-fi/horror film PANDORUM which opened in theaters back in September. He will next be seen fighting Donnie Yen in director Teddy Chan’s highly anticipated period martial arts actioner BODYGUARDS AND ASSASSINS which is set to premiere in China on December 18.

In the interview, Le reveals that his original fight with Yen, as choreographed by Stephen Tung Wei, wasn’t up to either actor’s standard.

“We filmed for like 13-14 days straight and a couple of more days after. And I told Donny, ‘Hey Donny, this fight scene that you and I are in, this is old school stuff. You’re Donny Yen. How come you don’t take charge in choreographing this?’ And he’s like, ‘I don’t wanna say anything and I don’t want the guy to lose his job.’ There’s so many other fight scenes that they could [have used] his expertise on …. we actually wrapped our scene and I was really unhappy,” said Le.

Yen later called Le back for a re-shoot but because of Le’s tight schedule the two ended up working around the clock to complete the sequence.

“We shot and the last day Donny [said], ‘Hey Cung, we can do a lot better but we need you a couple of more days.’ …. I said, ‘I can’t do it bro.What we’re going to have to do is shoot straight.’ So Donny and I both shot for 24 hours straight to get the final shot and what we did in 15-16 days with that other fight coordinator — between Donny and I and his expertise, ’cause I never wanna step on Donny’s foot — we did what we had to do to get it done in four days.”

Another Hollywood film Le will be appearing in is TEKKEN, a martial arts actioner based on Namco’s popular fighting video game series, starring Luke Goss, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa and Gary Daniels. Le portrays “Marshall Law” yet reveals that it was a short role with a rushed shoot. When asked when it might be coming out, Le was uncertain. “I don’t know, hopefully first quarter of next year.”

IMDb lists TEKKEN as premiering at the American Film Market in November which means that it doesn’t have a distributor yet and producers are hoping to sell it there.

Le also discussed two film projects currently in development that he is currently in talks to star in. One is UNCOMMON HONOUR, a film written by Stanley J. Orzel and produced by Hong Kong-based Studio Strada. The company’s web site offers the following summary. “Shortly before the handover of Hong Kong to China, a group of Gurkhas, renowned for their loyalty, is accused of blackmailing the Government. Their Team Leader joins forces with a Police Inspector to uncover the truth and to save the Hong Kong people from catastrophic jeopardy.”

“I just met with the producers. They really want me as the [lead] character. We got a verbal agreement. Right now it’s being written. Most likely, I will be the main lead. Most likely, I would do all the fight choreography in there,” said Le.

The other film is CERTAIN JUSTICE which Le talks about with enthusiasm. “CERTAIN JUSTICE is going to be hot. It’s an amazing script. We got some people looking at it. We don’t have a director yet. It’s like FIRST BLOOD meets NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN. Amazing script. Next to PANDORUM, it’s a one-two punch. It’s either CERTAIN JUSTICE or PANDORUM that caught my attention when I read it. I could not put the script down. I was like, ‘I need to do this.’ The script was written for me. My manager manages the writer. I can’t wait ’til that project gets going.”

When asked if he thought Hollywood was prepping him to become the next lead action star Le expressed interest but suggested he wasn’t done fighting professionally yet and he didn’t want to be just another action star. “I feel like I can elevate a fight in the movie to another level with whatever project I get attached to or [role] I play. I’m definitely gonna ask if I can choreograph all the fights because there’s a lot of cutting-edge stuff that I’ve been practicing and I’ve been waiting for that opportunity and when that opportunity comes, I think I’m gonna blow some minds when they see what I put on screen.”

In the rest of the interview, Le talks about working on PANDORUM and the challenges presented by a lack of quality Asian roles in superhero movies. Not discussed is his role in Yuen Woo-ping’s upcoming kung fu actioner TRUE LEGEND, starring Vincent Chiu, Andy On, Michelle Yeoh, and David Carradine.