"Crank: High Voltage" (2009)
Statham's actually shocked at how far Neveldine and Taylor pushed the script this time around. "I remember reading it and I gave a copy of it to Steve or Steve gave a copy to me and we said, 'No, this is just too far out. There’s no way they’re ever going to make it. No, you can’t do this. No, you so can’t do that. That’s so offensive.' I mean it really is. It’s beyond offensive. And they said, 'Do you want to do it?' and I said, 'F--k it! Why not?' So it was literally like that," said Statham.
After wrapping Crank: High Voltage Statham's more than ready to tackle a third Crank movie. "We had so much fun. When we finished Crank 2, we said, 'Shall we do another one?' Literally. I said, 'Yeah. F--k it! Let’s do Crank 3 in 3-D.' So, yeah, I’m sure the next episode will not be too far away."
"We were three quarters of the way through it and we went, 'Hmmm,' because we knew we were making something really far out and original," added Statham. "And then I said, 'Why let this be the last one? Let’s do another one."
They just drink a lot more tequila," said Statham. "They’re absolutely bonkers. Yeah, they’re just exactly the same. They’re just very, very confident and know what they’re doing. It’s an unusual set up they have. Normally you’d think one would take care of the script, the dialogue, and the other one would take care of the camera and the lighting, but they just flip it. They can just like, 'You go hold the camera this time.' They’re so interchangeable with their roles that they play."
Made for just $12 million, Crank earned its budget back over the film's opening weekend and wound up grossing close to $30 million by the end of its theatrical release run. Despite the first film's success, Statham says writer/directors Neveldine and Taylor didn't seem to have any extra weight on their shoulders while making Crank: High Voltage. "They’re not aware of any pressure. They wrote part two in like a week. I think it was a weekend, actually. They locked themselves in a room and just put three bottles of tequila there and just drank and wrote this script."
"That’s one of the most enjoyable films I’ve shot in the last decade," said Statham, explaining why he's so excited about a possible Crank 3. "It is absolutely madder than you could imagine. It is nuts. It’s like the first one, times 100. It’s just ridiculous."
Crank wasn't an obvious choice for a sequel given the state of Statham's character at the end of the film. Some viewers might have assumed Chev died, but Statham says no way. "If you look closely, in the first one, when he lands, you’ll see that there’s a heartbeat and the blink of an eye. That’s always been there. So, people who thought he died probably weren’t looking close enough."
Statham also just wrapped work on Transporter 3 directed by Olivier Megaton, a newcomer to the Transporter franchise. Asked why he wanted to do a third Transporter movie, Statham answered, "I wanted to make it better than the first two. I always thought the first one was the best one, for me. I thought we could do better with the second one. We’re always trying to do better. We just need more time and more money, and that’s hard to get. If we were indulged with a little bit more money, a bit more of a budget, more time, more preparation, we could do something really, really good, but sometimes we don’t get that. I think the third one is probably the best out of the three."
In this sequel to "Crank," hitman Chev Chelios (Jason Statham) launches himself on an electrifying chase through Los Angeles in pursuit of the Chinese mobster who has stolen his nearly indestructible heart.
Jason Statham on "Crank: High Voltage" and "Transporter 3"
July 31, 2008 - Jason Statham's obviously not adverse to starring in sequels, and in two of his upcoming films he's revisiting characters he's previously portrayed in films. Statham's back for further adventures as Chev Chelios in the action crazy Crank: High Voltage and he's tackling the part of Frank Martin for the third time in Transporter 3.
At the press junket for Death Race, the actionheavy car movie from director Paul W.S. Anderson, Jason Statham joked that his Crank directors Neveldine and Brian Taylor haven't changed all that much since he first worked with them in 2006.
