First look at ‘Universal Soldier 3′

IGN has scored one of the first images from the much anticipated re-teaming of Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren in the sci-fi actioner UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: A NEW BEGINNING (alternately titled THE NEXT GENERATION), the second sequel to their 1992 film. For a larger version of the image visit IGN.

MMAFighting.com also has a picture of cast member Andrei Arlovski, an MMA fighter and UFC heavyweight champion from Belarus.

Here’s a synopsis of the film courtesy of Quiet Earth.

A crazed Chechen nationalist, Basayev, seizes control of Chernobyl, site of the infamous nuclear meltdown, and threatens to unleash a radioactive cloud unless his nationalist blackmail demands are met.

Luc Deveraux (Jean-Claude Van Damme) joins a U.S. team of revived UniSoldiers secretly held in deep storage. Their mission: retake Chernobyl and disable explosives that will unleash the radioactive clouds. Luc is surprised when he finds one of the reactivated UniSoldiers is a clone of his old Sergeant, Andrew Scott (Dolph Lundgren). But the cloned Andrew has no recollection of Luc.

As the team furiously battles its way into the Chernobyl plant, they are caught off guard. Using a mind-control chip, Baseyev turns Andrew against his own comrades. Now surrounded, wounded, and out-numbered, Luc must battle Andrew, and save the world.

I absolutely love that Van Damme has returned to this franchise while Sylvester Stallone revived RAMBO and is now bringing a lot of veteran action stars together for THE EXPENDABLES. With Sho Kosugi returning to the big screen in NINJA ASSASSIN in November, I feel like I’ve stepped into a time machine that has transported me back to 1988. These old action warhorses are going to show the youngsters how it’s done.