Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren tricked the media into pondering they have been feuding to promote Universal Soldier.

The Cannes Film Festival has a storied historical past of notorious moments. We consider Brigitte Bardot in her bikini, Spike Lee threatening Wim Wenders with a baseball bat after dropping the Palme d’Or, just about the whole lot Lars Von Trier has mentioned or accomplished…But one that actually caught the media’s consideration was when Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren went at it on the purple carpet, with folks underneath the impression that the Universal Soldier co-stars and European macho males have been actually at one another’s throats. Turns out, it was all simply a gag for the press.

It’s one factor that Universal Soldier was even being represented on the Cannes Film Festival however one other completely that it wasn’t even screened! As it was, regardless of a minor presence on the Palais des Festivals, Roland Emmerich’s sci-fi motion flick wasn’t a part of any screenings as a result of it wasn’t full. As such, it wanted some further promotion. So go away it to the Muscles from Brussels to concoct a plan that may give Universal Soldier a little enhance in publicity forward of its summer season 1992 premiere.

As JCVD instructed Arsenio Hall of the staged Universal Soldier spat at Cannes, “The movie was complete but not cut yet…So I was in Cannes in Dolph. So I call his room, I say, ‘Dolph, we have a problem: we’re here, we have no movie to show…So let’s do something special. Remember when Sly and Arnold were dancing in Cannes [in 1990]? What about you and I…having a friction on the steps of the red carpet…So he said, ‘Yeah, that’s a good idea.’ So we push around each other and we made all the news in Cannes.” When Hall pressed JCVD if he actually made up the complete purple carpet tussle, he confirmed, “It was free publicity. I’m a businessman.”

Rumors have been abound that JCVD and Dolph Lundgren didn’t get alongside whereas making Universal Soldier so after they pretended to go at it whereas the likes of David Lynch, Sidney Lumet and Robert Altman have been ready to see if they’d take residence the Palme d’Or, it was simple to purchase. And the stunt paid off, with Universal Soldier opening at #2 and happening to be a fan favourite within the catalogs of each stars.