Last time we mentioned Tom Six, we were, somewhat bizarrely, upbraided on the Empire forum for never talking about Uwe Boll. Au contraire, nos amis. Eighteen months ago we brought you the amazing news that Dolph Lundgren would be turning out for Boll’s second Dungeon Siege tale In The Name Of The King: Two Worlds, following the 2007 original starring Jason Statham and Ron Perlman. And now, heralding the sequel’s Blu-ray and DVD release (in a stunning lenticular sleeve), we’ve got a couple of clips for you.
Given the forest-bound action in both, you might possibly surmise that you were watching two chunks of the same scene. But thrice nay! These events happen about an hour apart. The dragon bit comes after the men-with-swords bit. Dolph does not have a sword, but it’s OK because he can hit people in the face.
“Dolph Lundgren is a cop, and one night he gets attacked by ninjas in his house and falls with the ninjas into a vortex back in time,” explained Boll last year. “And then it turns out it's fifty years after In The Name Of The King ended, and [fantasy land] Ehb is destroyed, and Jason Statham and everybody who was in the first part got wiped out... And Dolph is the son of Jason Statham, and he was sent into the future and brought up in an orphanage, because the parents felt they would all die. So he is basically the last survivor of the kingdom…”
Incredibly, this is actually what happens, except that Dolph is an ex-marine and not a cop. There’s much in the way of prophecies and destinies, with Dolph called on to save the kingdom from its usurpers. And it’s half the length of the three-hour first instalment. Which is a relief.
“Why did you make this film?” we asked Dolph recently.
“Oh god, the Uwe Boll question,” he said.
“What can I say? It was an experience,” he went on. “It wasn’t exactly my taste, but I did it for other reasons. I was getting divorced at the time and I needed some cash quickly to pay for a few things… lawyers. Uwe is actually very impressive though. He has his own business and he runs everything the way he wants to do it, up there in Vancouver. He makes his own movies, gets his own financing. I wish I could do that. I wouldn’t have to work for anybody else!”
So, we wondered, did downtime on the Expendables 2 set ever see Dolph and The Stath comparing notes? And how did Dolph feel about playing Statham’s son?
“Am I his son?!” This was apparently news. “God, I hope not. I didn’t see the first one. Well, I saw part of it… I don’t know who I play. I think I’m just another guy who has the same sort of adventure. I don’t know what happened to Jason. Did he go back in time too? [He didn’t.] We never talked about it, never mentioned it. Wow, you learn things all the time…”
In The Name Of The King: Two Worlds is out on DVD and Blu-ray from Arrow on May 21.