In The Shepherd: Border Patrol, Van Damme plays Jack Robideaux a former New Orleans homicide detective) who joins the Border Patrol working underground as a as a brooding loner with a pet rabbit to battle former members of an elite U.S. military force (ex-Navy Seals) who have turned their past expertise into a scheme to smuggle 3-tone of heroin worth $35 million from Mexico into the US on a bus  carrying priest and nuns who are used as human shields when despicable scheme runs into road blocks and the fury we expect of Van Damme. Our hero single-handedly attempts to wipe-out the cartel in this thriller by taking on suicide bombers, sadistic tortures and treacherous officials from both sides of the border.

                

This is Van Damme’s first 2008 release and it is well-crafted action movie; hot with riveting shoot-outs, vehicle chases and extreme paroxysm-like fight scenes. The zeal of Van Damme’s younger rival, played by Scott Adkins, nearly turns these staged theatrical fights into a true sludge-fight between the two that is jammed with new and innovative techniques that are a visual delight for fight fans the world over. Reinvigorated, Van Damme is up to the challenge delivering everything one wants of Van Damme. The plot is easy to follow, dialogue is straightforward, and the action is intense. It is -precisely the proper mixture of merciless “VanDammage!”

By way of irony, Adkins in real life while growing up was inspired by Van Damme. The big deal will be that Van Damme is facing Scott Adkins, a new and promising high-kicking martial arts actor. The movie is filmed in Bulgaria, about a week in Mexico, and a week in California for exteriors.

                      
In March 2008, Jean-Claude van Damme did an interview with MTV in which he talks about "The Shepherd" and his movie career. Van Damme: "The Shepherd Is a simple, not too complicated story. I play a former detective from New Orleans. I take a job with the U.S. border patrol and I'm working undercover and I find out the new drug lords are controlled by ex-Navy Seals. It's full of action. I was in very good shape for the movie and used new fighting techniques. It's a Van-Dammage-type of action movie."

Van Damme keeps action movies interesting for him by challenging himself: 
"My body looks like 30 but my face looks like 50. But I cannot walk bare-chested in the streets. I like to do these movies to challenge myself physically."

Scott Adkins was not happy with the end result of the movie and wrote us in a mail:  "I was promised 3 big fights in the movie. The end fight was cut to a third of what it was and my other fights was took out, we didn't even film it."

Click here for an interview with Scott Adkins
And here for pictures that gives you a good preview of the movie.