Circle of Masters [a pitch for a Blood and Fists campaign]

[JPL]

Premise: Five martial arts masters in modern-day NYC share studio space. Each comes from a very different background and practices a different style. They try to learn from each other --- both fighting techniques and philosophies --- and they frequently face real danger.

Campaign style: I'm visualizing this as the best damn syndicated action show on TV. Little bloodshed, but lots of great fights and cool stunts.

Characters: The main thing is to have a good variety of styles, philosophies, and backgrounds. Also, each character needs some kind of hook that can lead to adventures. Maybe one is an ex-con, or one moonlights as a bounty hunter, or one has a day job as a social worker.

Pitch me some series regulars, gentlemen. Bonus points if you can also cast an appropriate actor or actress. Someone who would do a syndicated action show --- Ray Park might, Bruce Lee [for various reasons] would not.

 

[Vigilance]

Oooo. I'll start

Hagane Tanaka (played by Mako)

This aging master has a mysterious and violent past that he refuses to talk about, even when people from his past show up needing help (and they will).

After denouncing the use of his martial prowess in the cause of violence, he was an early student of the Akikai and learned Aikido from the art's creator, Ueshiba.

The least violent and most philosophical of the Masters, Tanaka is also extremely funny, usually as the straight man.

Edit: About Mako- Mako is a perfect compliment to the series' other young stars, having been in numerous films and tv shows, most recently seen in Pearl Harbor and as the voice of Aku on Samurai Jack. He has also been in martial arts movies before, including a few Chuck Norris films.

Chuck

 

[C. Baize]

Laura McCandless (Played by Kathy Long).
An unlikely heroine from Long Beach, California. She wanted to dance as a child, but her father insisted upon enrolling her in martial arts schools almost as soon as she could walk. Starting her martial arts career in Aikido, she graduated to Tae-Kwon-Do, then Jiu-Jitsu, and finally settling in Kung Fu where she earned her master's rank, studying Escrima and western Boxing along the way as well.
After a shortish but lucrative career in women's kickboxing, she was approached by a man wishing for her to train his daughter as well.
Remembering her childhood, she took the girl on as her student, gaining other students as time went on.
Laura eventually required an actual studio setting to teach her growing number of students, and found a place with several other masters sharing studio space and hours with the other masters.
A wiry blonde looker in her very early 40s, she looks younger than she is, and is quite soft spoken unless there are cameras rolling... a holdover from her career in kickboxing. Not one to take any guff, she sometimes feels she has something to prove among her male peers. She often feels she isn't taken seriously, though she is respected by the other masters. She has a decent sense of humor, and an innate understanding for the human condition.

 

[JPL]

[If Mako is unavailable, I'd love to see George Takai in that role.]

Reggie MacAlister [Ray Park]
From Glasgow, Reg was hooked at the age of ten when he first saw "Enter the Dragon." A wu shu champion, Reg is no mere exhibition fighter --- a couple of years in Hong Kong under an old-school Northern Shaolin master turned him into a serious fighter. But Reg traveled to NYC to make it in show business, and he continues to work bit parts as "Goon #3" in local movie and TV productions while he hones his skills with the Masters. Equal parts "drunken master" and "soccer houligan," Reg is about as strange as you would expect a blue collar Scottish kung fu master to be. A pop culture junkie, he still wants to be the next Bruce Lee.

 

[Nuclear Platypus]

Jimmy Kam-po Yeung (played by Sammo Hung)

A student of the same opera house that Jackie Chan studied at, Jimmy had a hard time growing up but nonetheless has a heart (and appetite) as big as him. The day job is a social worker for especially troubled kids, even going so far as to take them in to help with their problems. However that doesn't always pay the bills so he moonlights as a repo man, which he naturally hates since it goes against his nature. (cue Jackie Chan style barfights with Sammo Hung choreography).

To make it more entertaining: he's got a fondness for collecting Beanie Babies, Elvis impersonation or said kids end up helping him out (new child martial artists) a la Jade in Jackie Chan Adventures.