I’m down in Albuquerque, New Mexico visiting the set of Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor’s untitled Gerard Butler sci-fi action film (which is going under the codename: Game). Lakeshore Entertainment producer David Rubin was able to reveal to me a few new details about the upcoming Crank sequel. If you don’t want to know any spoilers, stop right now and proceed no further.
The big question everyone wants answered is how does Jason Statham’s character survive for a sequel to be made. When I asked Brian this question at Comic Con he started telling me about this cool video he found on You Tube where a skydiver fell to earth unable to open his parachute. The real life video footage was shot from a helmet camera. The interesting thing about this video was the guy got up on his two feet and began walking immediately after the fall, working on pure adrenaline. Brian wouldn’t tell me how Chev Chelios survives, but would only remark about this viral video with a grin.
Producer David Rubin recalled shooting the last scene in Crank, how “we all laughed because ‘there would never be a sequel to this movie.’” He went on to say that that “the way they’ve answered it is really exciting and fun. It’s really funny and really clever.”
Recently Hollywood Reporter did a story about Statham returning for the sequel titled Crank 2: High Voltage, and even gave away a few plot details: “Chev faces a Chinese mobster who has stolen his nearly indestructible heart and replaced it with a battery-powered artificial ticker that requires regular jolts of electricity to keep working.”
When asked about the “robotic heart,” Rubin laughed and stated “It’s funny. I saw that published, and I just kind of chuckled. I don’t know if you would call it robotic. That was a real stretch.” So who knows what gimmick might be used . Rubin promises that we’ll be entertained by their answer.
“The guys are just so unique and their vision is just so specific to them that if you are excited about their vision than you’ll love the way they solve and answer that question.”
I also asked about rumors that other characters who died in the first film, making a return for the sequel. Rubin responded: “You never know with those guys. Are they really alive or are they not? And are they those people or are they related to them?”
As for new actors to join the mix, Rubin stated that “We have a lot of ideas right now about Crank 2 and a lot of really exciting stuff that the fans are really going to dig, and it’s just about a process of fantastic idea elimination. Just like this movie, the guys like to start with a lot of ideas and they’re constantly exploring them and taking them to their fullest potential and then seeing which ones are going to live.”
The screenplay has been finished for a while now, but Mark and Brian are still constantly incorporating new ideas.
“The great thing with Neveldine-Taylor is the smallest idea they might have some times that we think is not really that prominent, sometimes can sometimes blossom into this huge thing,” Rubin said. “And with ‘Crank 2′, those guys are making a lot of notes and the ideas are still percolating. The script is great but it’s interesting because there’s Neveldine-Taylor as a writing team and there’s Neveldine-Taylor the directing team and the transformation happens when we’re actually in our office prepping the movie and when… they become the directors of the movie, the ideas just transform and have a life of their own.”
Crank 2 will begin preparation early next year, only nine days after Game wraps principal photography. Production will begin in April 2008, hopefully in Los Angeles.
“The script takes place in LA, so we’d like to shoot it in LA…”
November 14th, 2007 at 12:51 pm
Okay so Crank was an awsome movie and for the most part I am all game for a sequel but the whole idea with Chev Chelios just jumping up after falling from like 2 miles up and walking away just doesnt seem right. Even though i don doubt that it is possible for a person to do while running on pure adrenaline but that doesnt sound like the right idea for this movie.
November 14th, 2007 at 6:45 pm
Possibly the only movie ever made that can induce a heartattack. I’m not sure my heart can handle the sequel and I am nearly paralyzed with anxiety imagining how they will outdo the first film. They should make little baggies of fake coke as a promotion for this flick. Peter, did you get any good drug stories from the directors, as they are obviously big on the Don Simpson-method of movie-making? While the plot of GAME sounds terrible, these are the guys to do it. Probably my fave action directors working today - Tony Scott eat your heart out.
November 15th, 2007 at 10:35 am
This was a good movie!
November 15th, 2007 at 2:42 pm
Thing is, Chev didn’t just stand up afterwards, the skydiver did. Chev did blink at the end of the movie and it’s worth noticing that a) he was falling flat, which does reduce your terminal velocity and b) he did fall on a car, which may have cushioned the impact some. The electrical heart bit has sounded farfetched since it first came out, but sounds like the director’s saying it’s not quite accurate. Maybe he’ll have a mechanism attached to his heart that needs the jolt (although it’s still a contrived death trap).
November 15th, 2007 at 2:57 pm
First off, Crank is supposed to be a video game, so the big idea for the start of the sequel is that Chev just lost one man, and has more lined up. As for the robotic heart, it’s not as if this series is running on the fumes of logic to begin with.
December 21st, 2007 at 10:14 pm
This is great :P
March 7th, 2008 at 7:43 pm
Even if he was still alive because of the adrenaline… wouldn’t he have broken every single bone in his body from the fall?
April 23rd, 2008 at 3:54 pm
I think that crank 2 would work because chev could’nt live throught that fall out of the helicopter because even if the adrenaline was keeping his heart pumping the fall would have crushed every bone in his body and most of his enternal organs would burst
May 5th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
actually it is possible to survive falls from terminal velocity if you fall on your back and are 100% relaxed, there have been people picked up by tornadoes and thrown over a mile away from where they got picked up and woke up a few hours later with nothing more than a bump on the head.
It is possible yet very unlikely
this is going to be one of those movies where you have to forget all logic and just sit and enjoy it
May 17th, 2008 at 8:25 am
JUICE ME!
juice?
DO IT! COME ON!
May 18th, 2008 at 8:55 pm
The first Crank movie is a stolen manuscript, why do you think it only took four days to write, it was stolen from a un-published book called “Heaven became Hell…Hollywood be Thy Name! The book is about the biggest meth dealer in Hollywood in the late 80’s. The real Chev is rather mad and alive and will be tracking Mark and Brain down in the near future.
June 21st, 2008 at 7:02 pm
Crank was an excelant movie but the whole idea about surving a fall like that is insane and about getting an industrible heart stolen and replaced with a battery is very unlikly to happen and how the hell can somone walk away from something like that i am going to see Crank 2 but its just going overboard
July 17th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
If anyone noticed, Chev did blink at the very end of the movie after he fell and landed. People stay open minded, almost anything is possible.
It is going to be a great movie I’m sure.