Apparently Jason Statham does know how to say the word “No.” The action star has turned down the chance to keep Frank Martin alive in the Transporter franchise, but producer Luc Besson doesn’t seem to care because he’s moving ahead with Transporter 4. Besson’s EuropaCorp has teamed up with Fundamental Films to reboot the franchise and give Frank an – you guessed it – ORIGIN STORY! Now if only they can find a British guy who can talk with a serious voice and kick a lot of ass.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, it seems that Besson thinks that the Chinese box office could be the savior for Transporter, since nobody’s going to watch the movies without Jason Statham, considering they barely watched them with him. I’ve never been much of a math whiz, as my expertise was always limited to spelling 8008135 on my Texas Instrument calculator, but seeing as the first Transporter made $43 million, Transporter 2 earned $85 million and Transporter 3 took in $108 million (all worldwide), Besson is either going to really need to pander to the Chinese audience or make Transporter 4 on a budget of $9. But if Transporter 4 does well enough, Transporter 5 and 6 won’t be far behind it.
Don’t get too excited about Statham’s decision to let his version of Frank Martin die, though. THR also reports that Nu Image is shopping The Mechanic 2 in Berlin right now, and Statham is set to star. Maybe the plot of this Mechanic involves someone fixing Hollywood’s machine that cranks out new ideas.
In related news, this is what I imagine Statham looks like when he signs a contract: