EuropaCorp’s Transporter trilogy truly marked the arrival of Jason Statham as a bona fide action star, and now the franchise is getting a reboot – albeit without Statham. However, The Transporter Legacy, as the fourth film in the series has recently been titled, may launch a new actor to action stardom.
Ed Skrein, known for playing Daario Naharis on HBO’s hit fantasy series Game of Thrones, will be taking on the role of Frank Martin, who is called The Transporter because he’s the best driver and mercenary money can buy. In The Transporter Legacy, Frank meets Anna (Loan Chabanol), the leader of a group of criminals. The pair team up and attempt to take down a group of ruthless Russian human traffickers who have also kidnapped Frank’s father (to be played by “a prominent thesp”).
Radivoje Bukvic, Gabriella Wright, Anatole Taubman and Tatiana Pajkovic co-star in the film, which EuropaCorp expects to launch a new Transporter trilogy. Bill Collage and Adam Cooper penned the script for The Transporter Legacy, which Camille Delamarre (director of Brick Mansions, editor of Taken 2) will be helming.
It’s no wonder EuropaCorp is interested in relaunching Transporter even without Statham. The first and second entries in the franchise, helmed by Louis Leterrier (Now You See Me), grossed $43.9 million and $85.1 million worldwide, respectively. The third, for which Taken 2 helmer Olivier Megaton took the reins, grossed $108.9 million. If that upward trend continues, EuropaCorp is looking at a potential mega-franchise.
The Transporter Legacy has been set for a stateside release (via the recently launched EuropaCorp USA) on March 6th, 2015. That date has it going up against the Vince Vaughn comedy Business or Pleasure, which also stars Tom Wilkinson and Dave Franco. Neill Blomkamp’s highly anticipated Chappie, a sci-fi follow-up to District 9 and Elysium that reteams the director with Sharlto Copley and also stars Hugh Jackman, Dev Patel and Sigourney Weaver, has also been set for that week.
