MMA fighters making big moves into movies, TV
Several MMA fighters have movie credits, but they’re often cast as fighters with little to say. Le has a couple…
Several MMA fighters have movie credits, but they’re often cast as fighters with little to say.
Le has a couple of those films on his résumé, but he’s taking bigger roles in higher-profile films now, so much so that he relinquished his Strikeforce middleweight title.
His 2009 release Pandorum, in which he’s adrift in space with Ben Foster and Dennis Quaid, has recouped less than half of its $40 million budget in worldwide gross figures from IMDB and boxofficemojo.com.
But the 2010 release of Tekken, based on the video game, gives him a chance to get in front of a larger audience. Also, UFC fighter Quinton “Rampage” Jackson is filling the Mr. T role on a big-screen version of The A-Team, and Randy Couture is in Sylvester Stallone’s The Expendables.
“There’s going to be more opportunities,” Le says.
ext year, WEC begins a multiyear extension on Versus with two UFC cards and seven WEC cards. WEC also will work on compilations and other shows.
“We’ve looked at doing ancillary programming similar to The Ultimate Fighter,” WEC general manager Reed Harris says.
Harris and WEC vice president Peter Dropick say their deal wasn’t driven by the impending deal between Comcast and NBC that would bring Versus into the NBC family of networks, though Dropick hopes that deal might help resolve an impasse between Versus and DirecTV.
Could it lead to fights on network TV?
“You never know,” says UFC President Dana White.