PING PONG GOES TO SUDDEN DEATH IN BALLS OF FURY

The game of ping pong is the backdrop for the comedy Balls of Fury where champion Dan Fogler loses his winning streak when his father dies.

Spelling Bee star Dan Fogler is a ping pong champion on a losing streak because of his father’s death, until he is recruited by the FBI for a secret mission in Balls of Fury.

The ping pong term sudden death has new meaning in the film which Dan describes as a cross between The Karate Kid and Enter The Dragon with this tournament to the death and two teachers who train him to be a champion once again.

“But you replace the karate obviously with ping pong so ping pong to the death. And they find that Randy is a little bit rusty so they bring him to the Miagi character, the James Hong character which is Master Wong and he is this blind ping pong coach who teaches Randy how to get to the next level and try to get him back in shape along with his niece Maggie Q who also trains me.”

Maggie Q who recently kicked Bruce Willis’ butt in Live Free or Die Hard talks about the ping pong training she and Dan Fogler received from the professionals.

“Dan and I would be training and we’d be like huh, huh. We’d be hitting the ball and our teachers are like, ‘no that’s not how you do it.’ We’re like, ‘no we’re just joking, OK never mind.’ Then we realized pretty quickly that they’re really serious about us looking good. We’re like, ‘alright we better be serious about this.’”

Balls of Fury is written and directed by Ben Garant who also did Reno 911 which meant plenty of room for improvising.