Posts Tagged ‘Richard Norton’

After losing the legendary Aussie Martial Artist, Actor & Choreographer Richard Norton last year we thought we would never see our favorite in a movie again. Seemingly his last appearance turned up to be a villain role in Cynthia Rothrock Western/ Action hybrid Black Creek (2025) but to quote the Master Yoda himself “there’s another one…”.

Richard Norton & Stephen DeGenaro

Passionate Filmmaker and Martial Artist Stephen DeGanaro filmed some scenes for his upcoming project RAGING JAKE in the late 2024 and he had none other than Norton play his (step)father. Considering Norton was the O.G. of Australian Martial Art Actors (since the days of Octagon and Force Five ) it was a fitting tribute. I actually knew about this and even just recently commented that it was too bad we’ll never get to see it.

Jake uncovers a conspiracy tied to his past, his missing brother, and a violent criminal underworld. Every step closer to the truth pulls him deeper into danger.

The original concept trailer shot in 2024

Well, it’s a bit of a miracle because it turns out that over the two days of filming they got the main scenes with Norton done and there’s enough filmed for him to show up in a finished movie. And even if his role might be relatively small in the end it’s fitting that his last movie is a full on Martial Arts Fest filmed in his native country.

Now, for DeGanaro, this story is something he is deeply passionate about, including writing a whole book before he ever got the film going and he promises visceral (almost Ong Bak level?) brutal Martial Arts with no wires or CGI. Considering he is a dedicated Jeet Kune Do practitioner under Richardo Vargas (also the movie’s fight choreographer) we’ll hold him to his word.

With a fellow Aussie- Bran Foster putting out a non- stop banger like Life After Fighting (2024) recently it’s on DeGanaro to keep the momentum going and maybe, just maybe Australia can become a new Hong Kong, Thailand or Indonesia of action films.

For those of us who want to support the movie, it’s expected to go live on Indiegogo, right here any day now (so by the time you’re reading this link should up and running).

First announced in ’23 Cynthia Rothtock‘s Western/ Martial Arts hybrid is almost here. Distributed by VMI Worldwide, Black Creek is expected to hit the Apple TV on June 17th and can even be pre-ordered right herehttps://tv.apple.com/us/movie/black-creek/umc.cmc.59gl91h0yamgmjd7lxz7jv6gf

A sheriff’s sister seeks revenge against the terrifying leader of a group of outlaws after discovering he brutally murdered her brother, his wife, and other family members in a gritty southwestern town.

For fans of 80s and 90s Martial Art flicks, movie is significant as a reunion of China O’ Brian (1990) team of Rothrock, Keith Cooke and the late, great Richard Norton almost 35 years after their last film together. And the rest of the cast is also rounded out with who’s who of old school Martial Art movies with names like Don “Dragon” Wilson, Benny “The Jet” Urquidez, Keith Vitali and Ninjutsu pioneer Stephen Hayes all there.

Also if you want to order a DVD, Blu-Ray or even a Shoutout from Cynthia I believe movie’s Indiegogo is still open (for now) : https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/black-creek-an-action-film-by-cynthia-rothrock

Back in December we spoke about the fantastic Tiger Cops: Project A short- a love letter to the 90s Hong Kong/ Girls with Guns genre in which the titular heroine Inspector Tiger (Maria Tran) finally confronts the mysterious crime boss White Ghost played by none other than Hong Kong movie villain royalty Richard Norton (Mr. Nice Guy, City Hunter, Twinkle Twinkle Lucky Stars).

Richard Norton with “Black Bear” Sifu Damien Chauremootoo

Well, now we finally have the release date for the short film (spoiler: you won’t have to wait long) and the full trailer too. You can enjoy it bellow via Fideo youtube channel:

Starring: Maria Tran, David Hong, Wilson Zou and Richard Norton

And the fun doesn’t stop with Tiger Cop: Project A on the 17.03. because Norton also filmed a short cameo in Tran‘s next installment of her Echo 8 film series, Echo 8: Beyond that we can hopefully expect by the end of the year too. It’s a good time to be a Kung Fu movie fan for sure.

After a surprise reveal at the end of Episode 3 of the fantastic 90s Hong Kong tribute web series Tiger Cops our favorite Aussie ass- kicker Richard Norton finally filmed a full on fight scene for the upcoming Episode 4.

Maria Tran ( King of the Cross, Tracer) and the director Adrian Castro found the time in their busy schedule to not only film their new movie Echo 8 Trilogy but also the new episode of their cult Tiger Cops series too. Considering the last part of the series was released in 2017 (not counting the 2020’s Tiger Cops: Toilet Paper Hero and ’23 Tiger Cop: Yes Madam specials ) this is a quite a pleasant surprise. And the fact that they did it in only couple of days is even more impressive.

MARIA TRAN VS RICHARD NORTON

And a little tease of their fight scene. You can definitely see some nice fight choreography here.

Originally started in 2015 Episode 3 of the Tiger Cops series finally revealed that none other that Norton is the mysterious crime boss White Ghost. Considering both Norton and Tran are from Australia and that Norton was one of the most impressive gweilo villains in the Hong Kong cinema in the 80s and 90s it was a match made in Kung Fu heaven. I mean this is the man that went against: Sammo Hung, Jackie Chan, Yasuaki Kurata & Cynthia Rothrock just to name a few.

In the Previous Episode:

You can see the rest of the episodes on the Fideo Video youtube channel and as for Norton, we should see him next going toe to toe with Cynthia Rothrock like in the old days in the Black Creek in the first part of the 2025. You can still check out that project over here.

We talked about the return of the famous Martial Art duo Cynthia Rothrock & Richard Norton (after 30 years) some months back- and now we finally have the first full trailer. And it has as much ass- kicking as you can imagine. Which is pretty damn impressive considering most of the actors started their careers in Action Movies in the 80s!

The rest of the cast is equally impressive for any 80s and 90s Martial Art movie fan- featuring the third member of their China O’ Brian (1988) team- Keith Cooke (also know as Sub Zero in Mortal Kombat films) along with the the Kickboxing legends like Benny “Jet” Urquidez (Meels of Wheels) and Don “The Dragon” Wilson (Bloodfist) with Keith Vitali of Revenge of the Ninja fame. And speaking of Ninjas, first American Ninja master (student of Maasaki Hatsumi of the Bujinkan organization) Steven K Hayes is also in this movie!

Pretty incredible cast for a relatively low budget movie. And yes, I know Wild West wasn’t full of people doing Karate but it’s not like American movies are known for their historical accuracy.

The plot centers around a sheriff’s sister who seeks revenge against the terrifying leader of a group of outlaws after discovering he brutally murdered her brother, his wife, and other family members in a gritty southwestern town.

Now, enjoy all the Karate Cowboys and if you want to pre- order the movie, Black Creek Indiegogo campaign is still open right here.

In news almost too good to be true for the fans of VHS Martial Arts movies like ourselves we have the information that our favorite Aussie ass-kicker Richard Norton has joined Cynthia “Lady Dragon” Rothrock‘s project Black Creek (2024).

Known as the Martial Arts version of Fred Astair & Ginger Rogerst, Norton and Rothock started working together in the 80s Hong Kong under Sammo Hung in Millioner’s Express and Wong Jing in The Magic Crystal (1986).

They would continue their partnership in an American (but still Golden Harvest produced) China O’Brian (1988) and China O’Brian II (1990)- directed by Robert Clause (Enter The Dragon). They followed that up with actually the first Rothrock flick I’ve ever seen, her trademark Lady Dragon (1992). Their last full- on collaboration would be Rage and Honor II (1993) shot in Indonesia a year later. (Their last off- screen collaboration was when Norton served as a fight choreographer on Guardian Angel (1994), job he would continue to excel in in years to come– working on movies like Condemned, Mad Max: Fury Road, Suicide Squad 1 and 2, Triple Frontier and the upcoming Furiosa.)

It’s incredible that we had to wait 30 years for these “old gunslingers” to get back on the horse, but I’m so glad they did. You of course could never tell it’s been so long just by looking at them.

Black Creek, Western/ Martial Arts hybrid marks the first movie Cynthia has a complete creative control on and features a bevy of B-movie action legends beside Norton, from Olivier Grunner (Nemesis, Automatic) to kickboxing champ Don “The Dragon” Wilson (Bloodfist, Ring of Fire) to Kevin Sorbo ( Hercules, Andromeda) and is currently #01 movie project on Kicktarter blowing all the expectations out of the water. If you’re so inclined there’s still time to support it, so just click here.

Probably the most imposing bad guy in the history of Martial Arts cinema Yang Sze aka Bolo Yeung is finally getting his own documentary and we must say- it’s long overdue. From learning Kung Fu with different masters as a child to his competitive Bodybuilding years (he would go on hold a Mr. Hong Kong title for a whole decade) his story fits the “stranger than fiction” category easily. Not to mention the fact that he freakin’ swam from China to Hong Kong to escape Communism!!! Or the fact that he met Bruce Lee while filming Winston Cigarettes commercial (you just got to love the ’70s).

He stared (mostly as a villain) in over 100 movies raging from Shaw Brothers (The Heroic Ones, The Deadly Duo) to Golden Harvest (Enter The Dragon) to Bruceploitation (Clones of Bruce Lee, Dragon Lee Fights Again) to Van Damme films (Bloodsport, Double Impact) and even Jalal Merhi films (Tiger Claws 1 and 2, TC 2000). He even showed that he could be an awesome good guy/ wise mentor character in films such as Shootfighter 1 and 2 (featuring Karate Kid/ Cobra Kai’s Billy Zabka).

 

Movie is being directed by Aziz Cem and Pavel Nyziak (who Bolo actually collaborated with on his final movie, the Kazakhstani produced The Whole World at Our Feet aka Diamond Cartel) and features exclusive interviews with the likes of Bob Wall, Richard Norton, Cynthia Rothrock, Matthias Hues, Coreena Everson, Cung Le and many, many others.

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To celebrate the release of the new Black and Chrome edition of the fantastic Mad Max: Fury Road we take a look at the seemingly endless number of films it inspired: the good, the bad and the ugly!

05.  1990: The Bronx Warriors (1982)

Directed by “Italian George Miller” Enzo Castellari this movie takes a peek into distant future (8 years later) where  war is raging between street gangs in post-apocalyptic New York. Amidst all of that is the gayest anti-hero Mark Gregory (who mysteriously disappeared from the face of the Earth) who manages to reunite street gangs and win against evil government agent Hammer (played by Vic Morrow). Fred Williamson also takes roll in this battle.

04. The New Barbarians (1983)

Another feature from mastermind of The Bronx Warriors Enzo Castellari only one year later. This time two mercenaries Scorpion (played by Giancarlo Prete) and Nadir (played by Fred Williamson) help wandering caravans fight off an evil band of white-clad bikers after the nuclear holocaust. In order to achieve this they had to go through a living hell, including Scorpion’s ass being penetrated by gang of gay Templars in this hilarious scene:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x29u1yk_bamboozling_fun

 

03. Made by a Pinoy c- movie maestro Cirio H. Santiago and staring our favorite Aussie bad-ass Richard Norton and eponymous. Equalizer 2000 (1987) the movie doesn’t offer much in the way of story but makes it all up with a whole lotta bullets and bombs (one babe too). Also Norton swears that the damned thing could actually work and I’m not going to question him for sure.

 

02. Steel Dawn (1987)

Swayze is most popular when dancing (), or fighting people in bars but in the late 80’s Swayze decided to take a post-apocalyptic vacation of sorts. In this career left turn Road Warrior meets Martial Arts as Swayze plays. Also it’s worth noting that new regions like China are just discovering the Mad Max franchise as evident recent rip- off , the Chinese Mad Shiella. So, I guess post- apocalyptic wasteland won’t stop being a popular destination any time soon.

01. Steel Frontier (1995) places Joe Lara (Legends of Tarzan) in a post- apocalyptic Western wasteland and surprisingly- it works! Actually it’s a good candidate for my favorite Lara film. The plot is your basic Yojimbo/ Fistfull of Dollars thing but if it works why fix it. General is played by always super entertaining Brion James (General Quantrell) and Lara even goes mano- a- mano with Kane Hodder aka Jason Vorhees himself!

We enthusiastically talked about the first post- Expendables 2 movie for Chuck Norris- The Finisher.  Unfortunately that project never came into fruition (even though they were talks of it shooting in Australia with out favorite Aussie badass Richard Norton directing) but now we finally have some good news for all you Norris fans out there!

15056431_1137649649646235_6784295093935268070_n  Just a cool photo of Chuck stretching Norton from our friends at Action Elite

Chuck has signed to appear in African (Botswanan to be precise) movie with some B- movie heavy hitters like Michael Jai White (Spawn, Black Dynamite) and previously mentioned Richard Norton, now a famed choreographer having worked on Mad Max: Fury Road, Suicide Squad and Ghost in a Shell).  The writer is Motswana- born Edward Sebati and on the directing duties we have none other than the action maestro Isaac Florentine of Undisputed and Ninja fame! I see him as a sort of heir to the Menahem Golan of the legendary Cannon Films (just better).

943363_360839514037845_1477549880_nMcDaniels brothers, only their mother can tell them apart!

Movie centers around the two brothers Sasha McDaniels and  Dumisani McDaniels who end up caught up in a net of poaching, robbery, murder and even a serious political conspiracy. Chuck is of course playing their cool uncle Sean Kane. Pre- production is well on the way and filming should beginning early 2017 and I’m sure I speak for all of us- it was about damn time!

320350_361977167257413_1249151529_nDeadly villain Sahili played by Aurelien Henry Obama,much deadlier than the regular Obama!


equalizer-2000

In the post- apocalyptic future all that is left of human race now lives in a desert wasteland of North Alaska?! Yeah, that’s right. A new form of government has risen from the ashes of the old world,  The Ownership (and it looks kinda like a deadly combination of the American capitalism with German Nazism) rules the land with the iron hand  controlling all that is left of the natural resources- quickly depleting supplies of Oil. That of course prompts the creation of various rebel factions and it all results in a seemingly never ending war. During one of the battles father of muscle bound silent type Slade (Richard Norton) is shot. Slade disobeys a directer order from his commander Colonel Lawton desperately trying to help him but in spite of all his toughness and Martial Art prowess he ends up knocked out and captured. It turns out Lawton was just waiting for something like that to happen. Jealous of Slade he uses the opportunity to pronounce him a traitor and a wanted enemy of the Ownership.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2aomjw_equalizer-2000_auto

Norton menages to escape using his superior fighting skills but ends up mixed up in another fight when he helps the mysterious and rebellious beauty Karen (Caorinne Wahl). He ends up wounded and she drives him to her village.There they stop the bleeding and effectively save his life.As Slade recovers he plots his revenge. He fixes the legendary Equalizer 2000, gun made of many more guns and by default the manliest thing ever.

Equalizer-2000-1What a gun, what a man!

Lawton eventually founds out where Slade is (with a little help from the future Terminator alumni Richard Patrick). Norton decides to hold his own while village gets evacuated and Equalizer enables him to do just that. Karen insist of helping him and the two of them start wreaking havoc on the army of The Ownership. After sustaining significant loses Lawton decides that he wants that gun. Easier said than done thou.

Equalizer 2000.avi_002706937Dynamic Duo!

After the short detour that consists of fight with Deke’s (Robert Patrick) men and a romantic evening with Karen Slade gathers up all the different rebel factions and takes the fight to the The Ownership themselves striking their fortress with all their might. Lawton uses the opportunity to kill his superior and take all the power for himself but as we learned power is nothing without the Equalizer.

Notice how the tribal rebels with bows and arrows can actually shoot better than those with guns.

After a hard and devastating fight Slade finally kills Lawton and people are finally free. Unfortunately his lady died in the process. Little bit shaken he goes back to his cool muscle car and rides away, presumably into some new and cool adventures.

Verdict: This movie is an all out balls to the wall action! It makes little to no sense but if there’s one thing you’ve got to admit- those Filipino exploitation directors (and Cirio H. Santiago a long time Roger Corman associate is  a true veteran of that genre with over a 100 movies under his belt) sure knew how to film crazy ass car chases and explosion and that’s practically all there is to Equalizer.

Trivia: Now the real fun part is the mere fact that the main actor, Aussie Richard Norton actually managed to get a role in a new Mad Max movie (Fury Road) as a fight choreographer and one of the villains!!!I’m pretty sure it’s more due to his incredible Martial Arts knowledge  ( he is an Okinawan weapons expert, one of the founders of Zen Do Kai Karate style and is also popular as a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and self- defense expert) and not due to George Miller’s being a fan of Equalizer but no mater how you look at it, it’s one hell of a Aussie Cinderella story.

 

34zex35 Richard on the set of Mad Max: Fury Road, nothing has changed