Lionheart (1990)

Heath Holland (0:03)

Hello, my name is Heath Holland. I'm the founder and host of Serial at Midnight, and I'm so honored to be joined by Sheldon Lettich, the director of Lionheart. For a peek behind the scenes at how this movie was created, Lionheart is a foundational movie, not just in the career of Jean-Claude Van Damme, because it allowed him to flex his acting muscles in addition to his physical muscles, but also it sets up what action movies are going to look like throughout the 1990s.

Sheldon Lettich, thank you so much for talking to me about Lionheart.

Sheldon Lettich (0:29)

I'm very happy to be here, and I'm very happy to see that people are still loving this movie and cherishing this movie after 35 years.

Heath Holland (0:39)

It's an absolute classic. It's one of the most famous action movies that I think has ever been made. This is under the shot that we're watching right now. This is the Fourth Street Bridge, right?

Sheldon Lettich (0:49)

I believe it is the Fourth Street Bridge, yes.

Heath Holland (0:52)

Any, any, any crazy New York City stories during the making of this movie that you can share?

Sheldon Lettich (0:58)

Well, this is not New York City. This is Los Angeles here.

Heath Holland (1:01)

That's right. You shot by Coastal, didn't you? Didn't you do scenes for the movie from Los Angeles and in New York?

Sheldon Lettich (1:09)

We did not shoot in New York at all.

Heath Holland (1:11)

Really?

Sheldon Lettich (1:12)

Not at all. No, we put a few stock shots in there, but we shot the entire movie was shot in Los Angeles and just outside of Las Vegas for those desert scenes.

Heath Holland (1:31)

Okay. That's the mystique of movies.

Sheldon Lettich (1:33)

This is LA. This is the famous North Street Bridge. There's been lots of movies shot under this bridge.

Heath Holland (1:43)

So yeah, this is your first feature film, right? You had come from it. You had done a short before this. This is your major feature debut, correct?

Sheldon Lettich (1:50)

This is my first feature film, correct?

Heath Holland (1:53)

Did, can I ask you what it was like to be on location with production of this size for the first time?

Sheldon Lettich (2:01)

Well, it was just a little intimidating on the first day or so.

When I pulled up to the first location we filmed that was at the Van Nuys Airport, the scene where Attila gets out of the private jet. And as I was pulling up to the location, I saw all these production trucks. I got a little nervous and a little excited at the same time, because I realized, oh shit, this is really happening.

Heath Holland (2:32)

This is kind of a gruesome scene too, with the completely charred man.

Sheldon Lettich (2:37)

I was very, very shocked. The makeup guy knew what he was doing, and I didn't see it ahead of time. And when it was ready to go, I walked in, I saw the guy, and I was kind of taken aback by how gruesome it looked. But that's the way burned victims look, so it was pretty accurate.

Heath Holland (2:55)

Absolutely. You've got a really interesting cast here too. You've got people that would, you know... Van Damme is becoming a star at this time. I mean, some would say he already was a star, but you've also got a lot of other interesting faces here.

For instance, this scene right here, we're watching Lisa Pelican and...

Sheldon Lettich (3:14)

Eric Carson.

Heath Holland (3:16)

Yes.

Sheldon Lettich (3:17)

Eric Carson, one of our producers, is playing the doctor.

Heath Holland (3:21)

He's the director of the octagon, right? He's a director in his own right.

Sheldon Lettich (3:25)

And Black Eagle.

Heath Holland (3:28)

And Angel Town too, if I remember correctly.

Sheldon Lettich (3:30)

And Angel Town, yes, that's right.

Heath Holland (3:33)

Now, it looks like we're in Djibouti now. Is this outside of Las Vegas?

Sheldon Lettich (3:37)

This is outside of Las Vegas. This is June Dry Lake outside of Las Vegas.

Heath Holland (3:44)

One of the Spade Dam's idea, right? Didn't he come up with the whole Legionnaire?

Sheldon Lettich (3:47)

No, no, actually that was my contribution to this.

Heath Holland (3:53)

Okay.

Sheldon Lettich (3:54)

When I met Van Dam, I was working on a French Foreign Legion script for Sylvester Stallone.

So Stallone had hired me to write a Foreign Legion script. So I did a lot of research. I did a lot of research before I started working on it, because I was interested in doing a French Foreign Legion movie for a long, long time. What I wanted to do was a movie that took place during that classic era, that Beau Geste era with the French Foreign Legion. And Stallone didn't want to do that. He wanted to do something contemporary. So I wrote that contemporary version for him, which I don't think turned out very well. I never got made into an actual movie. But I did enough research. And as I was, this is when I first met Van Damme and I'm working on this script. And I needed some help with the French expletives. I could look up French words in the dictionary, but I couldn't look up swear words. So Jean-Claude was helping me with that. And as we're talking about it, as we're working on it, I said, you know, a French Foreign Legion movie would be perfect for you.