MovieChat Forums > No Retreat No Surrender (1986) Discussion > Interview with THE Kurt McKinney!!

Interview with THE Kurt McKinney!!

posted 9 years ago by kanzar
13 replies | jump to latest

My lady and I had an amazing opportunity recently to talk to Kurt McKinney on the phone and talk about this glorious film!

He sets the record straight on quite a few things that the internet has had wrong all this time, and he relates a few hilarious stories, too! Some of the topics covered include:

- His martial arts background
- How he got cast
- Working with Jean-Claude Van Damme
- How Bruce Lee's Ghost spoke absolutely no English
- Why he and JCVD weren't in the sequel
- WTF was up with that popsicle scene?!

I post this link not to spam, but out of sheer love. I hope you all enjoy :)

http://www.thekidfreeweekend.com/2016/01/episode-17-kurt-mckinney-calls-kfw.html

[–] Dan_Garten 9 years ago

Cool, thanks.

[–] bad_habitt 9 years ago

I'm downloading now, can't wait to hear it. Thanks so much for doing the interview. We need to interview everyone involved with this production for an extensive chat about it!

[–] kanzar 9 years ago

Kurt is unbelievably nice. I kinda lucked out into finding his contact info, and got even luckier that he said yes to an interview. Quite a few of the other fighters in the movie are full-time instructors now, so it probably wouldn't be hard to find them...

...unfortunately, Scott the Bully - Kent Lipham - passed away in 2008. I bet he would have been an outstanding interview. RJ - J.W. Fails - is completely off the radar. I haven't been able to find him at all, but just based off of his IMDB message board, there's good reason to believe that he wants no part of reminiscing about this film.

Kurt does say he would be up for a 30-years-later sequel... I've been trying very hard to find an inroad into making that happen :)

[–] bad_habitt 9 years ago

You are awesome beyond words! I had no idea RJ didn't know how to skate! Upon re-watching his skateboarding scenes, it's obvious he doesn't know how to. In certain scenes, you can actually see the stunt man's face (when he's skating towards the footpath works on the pavement and is being chased - in the long shot you can see the stunt man's face, before it cuts to a close up of RJ). The remaining shots of him skating have been ingeniously story-boarded and seamlessly edited in.

Wow, isn't editing just the ultimate illusion?

Signature - To any BluRay/DVD distribution company: please release No Retreat No Surrender sequels on BluRay!

[–] bad_habitt 9 years ago

By the way, I loved listening to Kurt recall the story of talking to Jean Claude about the original No Retreat No Surrender sequel. It seems they both only had a vague idea what the script was at that point. That's one thing Keith Strandberg needs to be interviewed on - exactly how did the original characters interplay in the original script for No Retreat No Surrender 2 in Thailand. I mean, what were they doing in Thailand together? Were they both competing in a Thai martial arts tournament before a rematch between them was somehow going to take place?

By the way, No Retreat No Surrender part 2 is my favorite film of all time, so my point of view on this whole thing goes both ways. In that - I LOVE THE ORIGINAL No Retreat No Surrender, but I love part 2 even more - but at the same time, what was the original intention for the sequel of part 1, and how do these 2 characters re-ignite their rivalry in Thailand circa 1986???

Signature - To any BluRay/DVD distribution company: please release No Retreat No Surrender sequels on BluRay!

[–] JoeX2525 9 years ago

Pretty much everything I've seen from the writers and director of Raging Thunder say it was never going to be a sequel. Kurt and Van Damme were to play the hero and villain, but not the same characters from NRNS1. So Kurt would have been Scott Wilde and the story would have been the same as what we see now.

[–] kanzar 9 years ago

I wish IMDB gave me notifications when people replied to me...

Thank you for the very kind words :)

The RJ stuntman stuff did come as a huge surprise to me too, but yeah, now that I know the truth, the first breakdancing scene in the garage is funnier than it ever was before! You really can see that it's a wig and not-quite the same as RJ's real hair.

As for the sequels, the distribution rights appear to belong to these folks:
http://www.umbrellaent.com.au/

Maybe you can email them and tell them to get their butts in gear on the rest of the series!

[–] 9 years ago

[deleted]

[–] bad_habitt 9 years ago

Yeah I think you should try to get an interview with RJ for sure!

Signature: To any BluRay/DVD distribution company: please release No Retreat No Surrender sequels on BluRay!

[–] kanzar 9 years ago

I've been trying VERY hard to find Mr. Fails (RJ), but I'm coming up totally empty so far :(

[–] bad_habitt 9 years ago

Thanks for your efforts. Keep trying however, I have a feeling he would have lots of stories to share about the production!

[–] PeterBradford1 9 years ago

Your interview with Kurt is awesome! Thank you so much for that. Please, please, keep trying to find Mr. Fails. I would love to know where life's journey has taken him. Kurt said in the interview that his personality is like the character's, so he's probably really cool to talk to.

[–] bad_habitt 9 years ago

Umbrella Films has recently asked what films fans would like them to release.

Please post on their May 30th post and request NO RETREAT NO SURRENDER 2,3 and KING OF THE KICKBOXERS.

WE Need support from the film community to get these released. Please do your part and post on their May 30th Facebook post.

Thanks in advance for any of your help.