Jean Claude Van Damme is one of those ’80s action stars who is past his prime, joining the likes of Steven Seagal and Dolph Lundgren in the straight-to-DVD section of the rental store, destined to endlessly hold guns in a variety of ways on the front covers (for the most part). The exception to that fact for Van Damme is his recent well received film JCVD, which may just have swung him back into the limelight a bit. Next for Van Damme: teaming up with Brit tough-man Vinnie Jones for the action-thriller Weapon.

Van Damme and Jones will play rival assassins who form some sort of “uneasy” alliance, to take down the head of drug cartel for the DEA. Van Damme will be the one skilled with a blade, while Jones will be a master sharpshooter. It will be directed by Russell Mulcahy and produced by Flagship.

Mulcahy has had a mixed quality career to say the least: He gave us the brilliance that was the first Highlander, and yet somehow managed to make the travesty that was the sequel, subtitled The Quickening. He brought us the sequel to The Scorpion King and the third Resident Evil movie (“oh dear” on both accounts…), but has just completed Give ‘Em Hell, Malone which looks pretty bad-ass.

So what does this mean for Weapon? Mulcahy has sure given us some crap in the past, but having the first Highlander on his resume (even if he also has the sequel on there, too) certainly gives us some hope that Weapon will be a decent watch. As for the plot, it doesn’t sound like the most interesting or original one, but with these two leads there is potential for it to be quite entertaining indeed. I never would have thought of teaming up Van Damme and Jones, but now that it has been announced it sort of makes sense.

Are you looking forward to the teaming up of Jean Claude Van Damme and Vinnie Jones? What other “action men” would you like to see team up?

Weapon is aimed to start production this August, but no official release date has been set.

Source: THR