He’s fought Rocky, starred alongside Jean Claude Van Damme, and battled foes as the Master of the Universe. Now action icon Dolph Lundgren is about to go toe to toe with his greatest co-star ever: Britney Spears. Well, sort of.
It might surprise you to know that the man formerly known as Ivan Drago has moved from starring in movies, to writing and directing them as well. His third such romp as triple threat is called “Command Performance,” which centers on an ex-biker turned hard case tough guy drummer, who has to rescue the Russian President after terrorists take over an arena where he’s watching a concert. (I swear to God that’s the plot, by the way).
“The concert is going on and the rock music is kind of blasting and the audience isn’t really sure what’s going on and the bad guys walk up on stage and the dancers kind of keep moving and some people are still thinking it’s a concert and some are running. They take the president hostage, his family, his daughters and you know my character’s name is Joe and he’s kind of off having a joint in the bathroom,” Lundgren said of the inciting incident. “It’s a bit unusual.”
Of course, the President isn’t there to see Lundgren’s drummer, but “an American pop princess named Venus,” Lundgren said. Enter Britney Spears. Well, Melissa Smith - but you get the idea.
“I thought about Britney a little bit [writing the character] I mean she sings, she dances, she has like a stage show, she does that kind of hip hop moves. I’ve looked and I’ve seen her - I mean, everybody has!” Lundgren laughed. “But Venus is just a fictitious character that we created that I came up with.”
Lundgren calls the film “Die Hard’ at a rock concert,” but kicking butt and taking names isn’t actually why he wrote the role. It was so he could play drums. No, seriously.
“That’s why I wanted to do it because I used to drum, I played the drums when I was a kid and now I get to do it again on the big screen which is fun,” he told MTV News. And he’s apparently quite good. Lundgren promises that the film will have original music from Smith and the Bulgarian band D2.
What do you make of the film? Sound like it’s getting your money, because, I’ll be honest, it’s definitely getting mine? Sound off on all your thoughts below.