Jean-Claude Van Damme, prophet of streaming? More than twenty years ago, on Thierry Ardisson’s set, the Belgian actor announced, in front of an incredulous and mocking audience, the advent of streaming.
“We are going to distribute the films with the telephone, this will be the first time we have done it.” These words, which are obvious today, are those of Jean-Claude Van Damme. June 16, 2001, on the set of the show Everybody talks about itfacing Thierry Ardisson and Laurent Baffie, the man who calls himself “The Muscles From Brussels” announces that he is working on a new method of digital distribution of films, to incredulous and even mocking looks.
“I’m going to try to get into the media world on the internet. We’re going to announce a film on the internet, from each country, then we’ll go to the web, and then we’ll do it with the antennas”explained JCVD in front of a table that didn’t really seem to take him seriously, as you can see in the video above.
“We will be able to reach 250 million viewers. That’s something good for a quality film with $1.99. That way, all people around the world, people who don’t have money, they press a button, they don’t have to wait 40 hours to download it…(…) I can’t wait for the satellite, it spends too much money, it costs millions of dollars. So we found a system, thanks to the internet.”
If he was undoubtedly too “ahead of phase” on his project and did not make his fortune in streaming, Jean-Claude Van Damme (do you know where his name comes from?) has since distinguished himself in The Last Mercenary on Netflix or the parody series Jean-Claude Van Johnson on Prime Video.
He is currently at the center of an ARTE documentary, entitled Coup pour Coup, which looks back in less than an hour on the highlights of his career and some striking and surprising anecdotes, such as his very successful imitations of Stallone and Schwarzenegger or the rescue of the film Bloodsport thanks to his intervention in the editing room.