Q&A With Scott Adkins

Scott Adkins has been a busy boy lately, and in the time since I last interviewed the British martial artist, he has filmed Undisputed IV and Hard Target 2, and is now about to make his Marvel debut in the upcoming Doctor Strange. Coincidentally, when I spoke to Mr. Adkins a few months ago, the subject of Marvel was brought up and he said that they should get their shit together and give him a call. Isn’t it funny how things work out?

I caught up with Mr. Adkins last week, who’s currently promoting his newest film Close Range, which was recently reviewed by The Night Rider.

With all due respect to Chadwick Boseman, do you feel that Marvel missed a trick in not casting Michael Jai White as Black Panther?
I think that they missed a trick by not casting Michael Jai White as Luke Cage, that’s just my opinion.

Boyka: Undisputed 4 is now finishing up post production, for an early 2016 release. How do you think it compares to the previous two entries in the series?
It’s hard to say how it compares to the other films, but I have watched it and I do think that it’s fantastic. But it is hard to say if it tops the other films, that will be up to the audience.

Isaac Florentine guest directed the stand out action sequence in El Gringo, while the rest of the film was arguably a missed opportunity. Close Range shares some DNA with El Gringo in concept, did guest directing the shootout in El Gringo inspire Isaac and you in any way in the making of Close Range?
Yeah, we did sort of use that same style as El Gringo for Close Range, but that sort of comes with the territory of putting a gun in the hand of a martial artist. They are different films of course.

You and Florentine have worked together on a whole bunch of movies. Do you guys often find that you bring out the best in one another, and do you come to a new project wanting to up the ante?
I do like working with Isaac, as he does like to sort of challenge me when we make a new film together. And we definitely want to keep upping the ante, but it all comes down to how many days we have to shoot and what we can do in the time that we have.

You’re doing Doctor Strange over at Marvel next. Have you seen any of Scott Derrickson’s previous movies?
Yes I have, I think he’s a very talented director.

Directed by Issac Florentine (Undisputed IV, Ninja), Close Range will see an on-demand release in the United States in early December ahead of its January Blu-ray release. Release details for other parts of the world are scarce to come by at the moment, so keep an eye out.