Empire caught up with Crank co-directors Brian Taylor and Mark Neveldine recently and they spilled some details about the Crank sequel, set to shoot early next year. Warning: There are spoilers for anyone who hasn't seen the first film.
"Crank 2 will pick up exactly where Crank one ends," says Taylor. "It's a true sequel. Jason Statham will return. It's not a prequel, it's not his brother, it's not a dream sequence. He will [scrape himself off the floor]".
As you'll no doubt remember, Crank ended with Jason Statham plummeting from a helicopter clutching the bad guy, since he was already doomed due to the poison that had been injected into his body and would kill him if his heart rate dropped below rutting rabbit levels. This would seem to make it tricky for the character to come back.
"We're finding that a lot of people were thinking, 'Oh, Crank 2 can't be done'," adds Neveldine. "But we came up with an idea, we wrote the script, and after the studio read it they couldn’t believe that we pulled it off. And of course, the best test was giving it to Jason and Jason turned down every other project so he could do this, start this in the spring of next year. He was so excited, he couldn’t believe it".
As are we! For ridiculous, hilarious, literally adrenaline-fuelled antics, Crank was hard to beat. And the directors promise this will go bigger.
"It’s going to be more sexual, more violent – more of everything," laughs Taylor. "We realise with a movie like Crank, you can’t do a sequel and do 60% or 70% of what the original was. You have to go twice as hard. So that’s what we’re going to do. If we’re going to live up to the first one with the sequel – we’re taking it WAY past the point of the first one".
Crank 2 is set to start shooting on April 25, 2008.