A little over three months ago we reported on the news that the mindlessly fun 2008 movie, Death Race, was going to be getting a sequel – or rather, as was reported at the time by Shock Till You Drop, a prequel that would lead up to the first Death Race and Jason Statham’s antics as top driver Jensen Ames.

And now, thanks to SpoilerTV we get some info on both what the plot and the characters will be , by way of casting call info. Nothing has changed in terms of it being a prequel, in fact this news is kind of a confirmation of that. It will indeed take place before the first film, this time being called Death Race: Frankenstein Lives (Frankenstein is the name of the top driver, FYI, they’re not just trying to turn it into a horror movie for no reason…).

Shock Till You Drop is reporting that the 2008 Jason Statham high speed action-fest, Death Race, will be getting another movie. But not a sequel, no, the next Death Race will be a prequel. I guess we won’t be seeing Statham in this one, and not just because he’s got better things to do.

Director of the first Death Race, Paul W.S. Anderson, has already tapped writer Tony Giglio (Timber Falls, Chaos) to script the prequel, based on a story by Anderson. The film will be produced by Impact Pictures (a production outfit shared by Anderson and Jeremy Bolt), and word is it will delve into the past of the driver, Frankenstein.

Screen Rant’s Death Race DVD mega-contest is now closed, and here are the winners!:

• Filipe Muffoletto -Seattle, WA
  
• Jon Stalnaker -Turlock, CA
• Travis Johnson – San Diego, CA
• Andy Coe – Tucson, AZ
• Aika Itami – Warrior, AL
• Liz McDonough – Syracuse, NY
• Dave Fernandes – Nashville, TN
• James P. Sotis – Ipswich, MA
• Ryan Ferrier – Calgary, AB, Canada
• Eric Hall – Cincinnati, OH
  

Congratulations and thanks to everyone for entering. There’s another contest RIGHT around the corner!

Hot on the heels of today’s winners we have another Screen Rant DVD giveaway. This time we’re giving away 10 copies of the unrated version of the Jason Statham starring remake of Death Race on DVD.

Yup, you read that right: Ten (10) copies.

No promises, but based on the number of entries we usually get I’d say your odds are probably better than 1 in 20. WAY better than hitting the lottery.

Short Version: Don’t ask for more than what’s being offered and you will enjoy it.

Screen Rant reviews Death Race: Fast cars, big guns, hot chicks. As promised.

If there is one thing that can be said about Jason Statham, it’s that the man is an action star you can tell is hungry for success, willing to put life and limb on the line for your entertainment. And that effort usually shows in the finished product.

Death Race is no exception.

I can’t believe that it’s now the end of August! Soon the winter blockbusters will be knocking at our door and the next thing you know it’ll be Oscar time again. Where does time go? Is it playing like a re-run somewhere, can you just flick to another dimension to a time where you are still awaiting a fourth Indiana Jones movie? Who knows, but I do know that it’s another Weekend Movie News Wrap up featuring a new aspect: a weekend box office update.

This week:

After our box office round-up we see what George Clooney and Jason Reitman are doing Up in the Air, we find out what former superhero is joining the Toy Story franchise, we look at who might be helming the Poltergeist movie and the Voltron film and what is new on the Inglorious Bastards casting front.

ShockTilYouDrop has the first poster for the upcoming remake Death Race.

Appropriately, it has a bit of a a early 70’s action flick vibe to it. I really don’t expect much from this, but hopefully at the very least it’ll turn out to be a guilty pleasure. And Jason Statham is a great action guy to watch on screen.

See a larger version below and for the high res click on the pic.

The first, and hopefully only, Death Race trailer has been released. Why do I hope it’s the only one? Because this one gives away so much of the plot that there’s almost no reason to go watch the movie.

Death Race is a remake based on the cult classic Death Race 2000, made way back in 1975 when the year 2000 still seemed like “the future.” The original is the sort of film that I believe is OK to be remade, because it was a campy, cheesy B-movie that has nowhere to go but up. Don’t get me wrong – while very violent for the day, it was a ton of fun. It starred David Carradine as the masked “Frankenstein” and Sylvester Stallone as one of the racers.

For a while this was titled Death Race 3000, but I’m not sure why since it seems to take place in the not-too-distant future.

A slew of new photos have been released by Universal for the new Death Race movie directed by the infamous Paul W.S. Anderson. I don’t have the time to dig into this right now, but it’s starting to look like they’ve dropped the “3000″ from the title. If that’s true, it at least drops the “cheese factor” on the title. Whether that transfers to the movie…

Here’s this week’s edition of the Screen Rant podcast with my thoughts on this week’s news including why Death Race 3000 won’t be any good, the double-dose of “punking” received by AintItCoolNews, Iron Man updates, a reminder to enter the Spider-Man 3 contest and more!

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Jason Statham has officially signed on to star in the upcoming remake Death Race 3000.

There is good news and bad news in regards to this. The good news is that I think Statham is perfect for this type of movie. I haven’t heard what role he’ll be playing, but my guess would be that he’ll play the character called Frankenstein in the original movie (Death Race 2000).

Oh, joy.

Some brilliant person has given Paul W.S. Anderson the green light to write and direct a remake of the B-movie classic Death Race 2000. Now Paul is the guy who brought us the [sarcasm on] wonderful [/sarcasm] Alien vs. Predator and such gems as Soldier and Event Horizon.

Now I’m not saying that Death Race 2000 is Citizen Kane, not by a longshot. It was a cheaply made, campy, violent Roger Corman flick, but it was fun, dammit. If there’s one thing you can count on, it’s that “3000″ won’t be. Oh, it’ll probably try to be cool, edgy, gory (well, sorta, since they’ll go for the PG-13 rating, guaranteed), but it won’t succeed (unless you’re 15 or so).

Sure, the guy’s movies make money (but only if you include overseas box office), but how many properties are the studios going to let this guy trash?

Yeesh.