When we talked to Joe Carnahan back in January, he expressed interest in making a Smoking Aces prequel: “I’ve had an idea to do a Tremor brothers prequel, do this, do that. You could explore these characters endlessly.” But the movie came and went, becoming modestly successful ($53 million worldwide) before doing huge numbers on DVD. Now the idea has gotten a greenlight.

“Universal wants to move ahead with a direct-to-video prequel of ‘Smokin’ and asked me if I wanted to Godfather the thing and make sure we did a really cool story,” Caranhan reveals. “The DVD numbers ‘Smokin’ Aces’ has done are astounding and they want to strike while the iron is hot. Whatever reluctance I have is alleviated by the fact that we can really do this balls out, hardcore prequel and not be constrained by ratings or any other puritanical MPAA bullsh*t. That I love.”

In the original film, the Tremor brothers were played by Chris Pine, Kevin Durand and Maury Sterling. The three brothers are Neo-Nazi rednecks/assassins.

Now this is a direct-to-dvd sequel/prequel/spin-off that I actually want to see. And with Carnahan at the typewriter (err computer) I cant go horribly wrong, or can it?