ijcai 09

At the dawn of the twenty-first century, America is living a nightmare. An outbreak of plague decimates the population. Taking advantage of the apocalyptic disorder, a gang of off-the-law are spreading terror wherever they go. To save humanity from an imminent end, only Prophet Pearl, a woman half-human, half-robot, can get to Atlanta the vaccine that will cure men of the plague. But she falls into the clutches of Fender Tremolo, leader of a band of Barbary pirates, who covets the cure for his own benefit. During his trip to Atlanta, the group is joined by Gibson Rickenbacker, a man with a painful past, whose sole purpose is to rid the world of Fender, responsible for the loss of those he loved.

How it started

At first, Cannon Films had planned to make a sequel to the 1987 He-Man film, Masters of the Universe as well as a live-action version of 'Spider-Man'. However, both projects were cancelled as Cannon, having financial difficulties had to cancel the deals with both Marvel Entertainment and Mattel, the sole owners of Spider-Man and He-Man, respectively. Cannon who had already spent $2 million on costumes and sets finally decided to regroup the money spent and start a project. It was then that Albert Pyun wrote Cyborg’s storyline in one weekend. Pyun initially had Chuck Norris in mind for role of Gibson, but co-producer Menahem Golan set his choice Jean-Claude Van Damme. The film was shot for less than $500,000 and was filmed in 24 days.

Accident during filming

Jackson "Rock" Pinckney, who accidentally lost his eye during the movie’s production when Jean-Claude Van Damme struck his eye with a prop knife sued Van Damme in a North Carolina court and was awarded $485,000.