JCVD (also released as Van Dammage in the USA) is a French meta-action film directed by Mabrouk El Mechri starring Jean-Claude Van Damme as the title role. Van Damme plays himself, a down-and-out action star whose family and career are crumbling around him, as he’s caught in a bank heist in his hometown of Brussels, Belgium. JCVD is Jean-Claude Van Damme’s filmed redemption; a weary hero’s only shot to get back what he lost with fame.

JCVD has garnered Mabrouk El Mechri critical acclaim[1] and has screened at the 2008 Rome Film Festival (L'Altro Cinema) and the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival (Midnight Madness).

The film is being distributed by Peace Arch Entertainment from Toronto and opens in New York and selects cities on November 7th, 2008.

Plot

During the course of a very bad day, beginning with a trip to the post office that lands the defeated Van Damme embroiled in a dangerous heist, the "Muscles from Brussels" is pitted against some truly desperate and dangerous criminals; who are actually huge Van Damme fans.

The premise is simple: JCVD is in the middle of a child custody battle with the latest of his many wives. He's out of money, his lawyers are about to drop the case, and the judge is inclined to give custody of his daughter over to his ex-wife. Even his daughter doesn't want to live with him because she is embarrassed by her father.

His agent can't find him a decent production, the scripts he's working are full of holes and don't make sense, and the untalented directors don't respect him. He returns to his childhood home of Brussels: where he’s still considered a national icon. Local hero, Jean-Claude Van Damme, is at rock bottom.

When he goes into a post office to arrange a wire transfer to his law firm, he encounters a real-life hostage situation. Due to an unfortunate mistake, the police believe HE is responsible for the crime. As the events are played from different perspectives, we see Jean Claude in a desperate situation, acting as a hero as he tries to protect the hostages, while his fame and presumed guilt force him to take up the role of a negotiator. As media circuits pickup the story and a press circus engulfs the town, Van Damme’s parents are brought in to talk him down amidst a huge crowd of supportive fans and the hungry attention of the international community. Trapped between three unstable criminals and an over-anxious police force, Van Damme is forced to play a different kind of hero by accepting responsibility for crimes he didn’t commit and the life mistakes that he did.

Cast

    * Jean-Claude Van Damme as J.C.V.D.
    * François Damiens as Bruges
    * Zinedine Soualem as The Man with the Cap
    * Karim Belkhadra as The Vigil
    * Jean-François Wolff as The Thirty
    * Anne Paulicevich as The Teller
    * Saskia Flanders as J.C.V.D.'s daughter
    * Dean Gregory as the Director of Tobey Wood
    * Kim Hermans as the Prisoner in kickboxing outfit
    * Steve Preston as the Assistant to JCVD
    * Paul Rockenbrod as Tobey Wood
    * Alan Rossett as Bernstein
    * Jesse Joe Walsh as Jeff