Remember When Van Damme and Seagal Almost Fought Yetis?

There was a brief, beautiful moment in the mid-1990s when the universe almost aligned to give us not one but two separate movies in which two of the biggest action stars on the planet would punch an Abominable Snowman in the face.

And then, cruelly, it was taken from us.

There was a brief, glorious window in the mid-1990s that feels almost fictional in hindsight, when Hollywood very nearly delivered one of its greatest unmade double features. Not Street Fighter. Something far more important. The moment when Jean-Claude Van Damme was officially attached to fight a Yeti in a big studio movie called Abominable — at the exact same time Steven Seagal was circling his own Himalayan monster epic.

This is not internet folklore.
This actually happened.

Van Damme vs the Abominable Snowman

In 1995, Variety reported that Universal Pictures had purchased an action-adventure script titled Abominable for producer Moshe Diamant, who had already worked with Van Damme on Timecop.

The premise was simple and perfect: Predator, but cold.

A United Nations task force investigates the disappearance of Red Cross workers in the Himalayas, only to discover the mountains are not empty. Jean-Claude Van Damme was attached to star. A Yeti was the enemy. Somewhere, a slow-motion roundhouse kick was waiting patiently.

The script was written by Troy Neighbors and Steven Fienberg, fresh off Fortress starring Christopher Lambert. This was not some half-baked straight-to-video fever dream. Universal paid a mid six-figure sum. ICM brokered the deal. Real studio money was being spent on the idea of Van Damme versus the Abominable Snowman.

At various points, directors like Peter Hyams and Renny Harlin were reportedly considered. Just imagine it:
Van Damme sprinting through snowfields.
A practical monster suit.
Explosions in the Himalayas.
A tagline that might as well read Predator in the Snow.

And then reality intervened.

Van Damme’s schedule filled up. He directed The Quest and starred in what was then called The Colony — later retitled Double Team, co-starring Dennis Rodman and a Mickey Rourke performance that suggested he was actively trying to escape the set.

Universal eventually lost interest.
Abominable quietly froze to death in development hell.
Cinema took a hit it has never fully recovered from.

Meanwhile… Steven Seagal Finds a Yeti

Here’s where it gets better.

While Van Damme’s Yeti was slowly suffocating under studio indecision, Steven Seagal was reportedly in very serious discussions with Warner Bros. about his own Yeti movie.

This project was called Snow Blind.

According to screenwriter Ethan Dettenmaier, who later discussed the experience on a podcast, the project emerged after Seagal turned down a different script because people he knew in the black-ops community would be upset with him if he made it.

Which may be the most Steven Seagal sentence ever spoken.

Seagal then announced he wanted to do a horror movie and demanded a script in 24 hours. When that didn’t happen, Dettenmaier pitched him a list of ideas, saving the weakest for last: a diplomatic flight crashes in the Himalayas, a Yeti stalks the survivors like Jaws, and Seagal plays the Special Forces operative sent in to deal with it.

Steven Seagal immediately declared, “This is the one.”

He then explained — completely straight-faced — that these creatures do exist, and the reason nobody sees them is because they can transcend dimensions.

So for a brief, shining moment, Warner Bros. was potentially backing a movie where Steven Seagal would fight interdimensional Yetis.

And yes, this would have been treated as a documentary.

The Crossover That Never Was

Snow Blind never went into production.
Neither did Abominable.

And the real tragedy here isn’t just that we missed out on two monster movies. It’s that we missed out on the most important rivalry that never happened.

Somewhere in an alternate universe, Van Damme and Seagal released competing Yeti movies within a year of each other, forcing audiences to choose sides in the ultimate snowbound showdown.

History denies us this joy.