By Travis Johnson
Not only is he coming our way to wow audiences with his unique storytelling style, action superstar Jean-Claude Van Damme has a new pilot for Amazon, the astoundingly named Jean-Claude Van Johnson, which Van Damme is co-producing with Ridley Scott (!) and David W. Zucker.
imdb has a brief synopsis:
A famous action hero/martial arts star comes out of retirement to assume an alter ego as undercover private contractor named Jean-Claude Johnson.
…which is intriguing enough, but then you read the official synopsis and realise that this is full-blown, possibly genius-level lunacy:
If you need to eliminate a political rival, debilitate a multinational corporation, or overthrow an entire government—and you need it done with the utmost secrecy—there’s only one person to turn to: one of the most internationally recognizable movie stars in the history of film. Jean-Claude Van Johnson stars Jean-Claude Van Damme (JCVD) playing “Jean-Claude Van Johnson,” a global martial arts and film sensation… and, operating under the simple alias of “Johnson,” the most dangerous undercover private contractor in the world. Lucky for the world’s bad guys, he’s been retired for years… unlucky for them, a chance encounter with a lost love is about to bring him back to the game…and this time, he’ll be deadlier than ever. Probably.
Given that this is directed by Peter Atencio, whose CV is dominated by Key and Peel, including their (straight-to-DVD-hereabouts) debut feature, Keanu, we’re betting this is comedy, but JCVD’s particular brand of eccentricity, as seen in, well, JCVD, means it could be anything.
There’s no guarantee this will go to season – it’s in competition with two other Amazon pilots, the reboot of The Tick and I Love Dick, starring the great Kathryn Hahn – but in the meanwhile, here’s a bunch of photos to get your mind ruminating on the infinite possibilities.
