Jason Statham to Return for The Transporter 3
The Transporter and The Transporter 2 were pretty decent, if rather forgettable, high octane action movies. The fancy schmancy hyper-kinetic martial arts fight scenes lose a bit of their appeal after seeing something like the latest Rambo movie, which simply overwhelms viewers with pure brute force, but I suppose there’s plenty of room for both styles out there.
Today we get word that a third Transporter movie is in the works (actually, scratch that, it’s already almost done!), with Jason Statham reprising his role as the bad ass courier Frank Martin. Director Louis Letterier has better things to do obviously (The Incredible Hulk), so another Frenchman, Olivier Megaton (second unit director on Hitman) is attempting to fill his shoes.
The movie finished shooting last month and is now in post-production, with a scheduled release date of November 26th. Lionsgate will be distributing this installment instead of 20th Century Fox. I can’t say I’m overly excited, but it may be something I check out on DVD eventually. I wonder if Jason Statham will ever get a chance to try any roles that don’t involve car chases or choreographed fist fights?
Comments (7)
It would have been cool if Louis Letterier could finish the franchise he helped start. I guess it doesn’t matter though because it’s not like losing Sam Raimi off of Spider-man 3. I’m looking forward to it; there aren’t enough real world American action movies any more.
Posted by Ryan on June 3rd, 2008Is it really an American action movie though? It’s produced by Luc Besson and shot in Europe… it’s more a part of the French action craze I think.
Posted by Sean on June 3rd, 2008Yeah you’re right about that. When I said American I really meant English language. I’m thinking about the modern day gunfight/carchase action movie with a dash of fight scenes.
Hong Kong still makes these things in abundance. I’m really into Jackie Chan’s schoolmates; Cory Yuen co-directed the first one and that is where the kung fu influence comes from.
There’s a French action craze? I need to check that out.
Posted by Ryan on June 3rd, 2008Well, there’s that District B13 movie, and a bunch of other Luc Besson flicks. I suppose that doesn’t really constitute a “craze”.
Posted by Sean on June 3rd, 2008The guy’s name is really Megaton? That’s a badass name.
As far as Transporter goes, I wasn’t a fan of the first one or the second one really. It’s kind of neat seeing the over-the-top crazy action stuff sometimes, but other times it’s just too silly. Like when there’s a bomb underneath Statham’s car in the second one and he jumps off a ramp, flips upside down in the air, and snags the bomb off the car with a crane or whatever? I just scoff at some stuff like that. Then again, I can’t wait to see what Timur Bekmambetov is going to do with Wanted and Twilight Watch, so maybe I’m just full of shit. Either way, I could do without Transporter 3, but I’ve got nothing against it, I suppose. In general I’m more of a Jackie Chan kind of CG-free guy. Project A represent!
Posted by Rian on June 3rd, 2008My brother will be delighted.
Posted by Ian on June 3rd, 2008I don’t begrudge Statham these flicks. He’s smart enough to take what comes his way, and because of these movies he’s pretty much the biggest action star going right now. I still won’t see the movie ( I haven’t seen any of them so far) but it doesn’t bother me that it was made or anything.
Posted by Jon Rocks on June 4th, 2008Leave a Reply