White belt Kevin James in the movie “Here Comes the Boom” / Publicity photo
by collaborator Junior Samurai
A bankrupt school needing to cut costs to dig itself out of a financial hole, and a hilarious but big-time-tough biology teacher—that’s the plot for “Here Comes the Boom”, opening at US movie theaters this October 12.
In the feature film, Kevin James plays the part of Scott Voss, a goofy teacher looking for a way to save the school where he works. In one of his attempts, he finds out through a friend (Bas Rutten) that he can earn good money doing MMA, while also stimulating his students to fight for what they want. Between grueling but side-splitting training sessions, the master literally goes to battle.
The film is directed by Frank Coraci, and the cast includes the likes of Henry Winkler, Salma Hayek, Joe Rogan, Mike Goldberg, Greg Germann, Mark Munõz, Bruce Buffer, Jason Miller and Krzysztof Soszynski.
Also noteworthy is the fact that Kevin trains Jiu-Jitsu with Rômulo Barral in Los Angeles. In preparing for the movie, James practiced MMA with Rafael Cordeiro, a highly regarded coach from Curitiba, Brazil, now living in California himself.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljFQcSUVcm0
“I appear in the film, which goes to show that I’m not just another pretty face (laugh). I feel the movie is going to be a watershed because it’s an MMA movie with established Hollywood actors. I feel everyone will be impressed by how he trains in it,” Rafael Cordeiro told the ManiaMMA.com.br website.
