Mark Neveldine is an extraordinary human being. After all, how many directors could you name who are happiest on set scooting around on a pair of rollerskates? Not Spielberg, that's for sure.
One half of the frenetic directing duo that is Neveline/Taylor, Mark's the man that gave the action genre an adrenaline-fuelled kick up the arse with 2006's **Crank **and is now bringing us Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance in 2012.
Speaking to Neveline recently about working with Nic Cage on Ghost Rider's sequel / reimagining / reboot / whatchamacallit, we brought up the joys of working with Idris Elba, and then began a conversation about the prospects of Crank 3.
What's important to note here is that this is all conjecture of a sort. And, perhaps more importantly, that** Crank 3** is definitely going to happen, which can only be a good thing.
So anyway, here's a brief snippet of the interview, which will appear in full later in the month:
What was it like working with Idris Elba?
He’s got great control of his body. You don’t expect that from someone who is such a great actor, who has that sort of gravitas that Idris has, but he was hopping on his motorcycle no problem… just the way he moves with a gun, when he walks, it feels like an action scene. Same thing with Jason [Statham], those guys turn their head and it’s an action scene. There are so few actors have that ability and it was a real trip to work with Idris, he was an amazing actor, a great dude, and it was a blast just hanging out and having drinks with him, hitting the town with him.
So should we expect Idris to appear in Crank 3?
I would LOVE that! Actually, we joking-but-not-quite-jokingly joked about that with Idris while we were over in Romania and Turkey. Just trying to figure out a way of getting him into Crank 3.
There are so many different ways that Crank 3 could go. We’ve been talking about the top 50 ideas we what to do for Crank 3, so we’re just trying to pair them down.
By the way, Crank 3 is going to happen, the studios are really excited about it – it’s just all about timing.
How do you plan on getting around the ending of Crank 2?
[Laughs] That alone, we have 20 ways to tackle it. You know, with Crank, basically, you insert another quarter and you play the game again. It’s kind of like what thrills me and Brian, it’s whatever we feel like doing there in the moment, whatever we wanna do, we just do and make it happen. The important thing is what powers Chev. It was adrenaline that kept him alive in the first one, it was electricity in the second one, you know, it’s all about what will keep him alive in the third one. It’s just fun slinging those ideas around.
Would The Rock be someone you’d be interested in working with in Crank 3?
*Yeah man, anytime! If we could play something around him, fit him into our world, that would be amazing. We love that guy. I think he’d really get down with how we do things, too. *
The idea of Idris Elba being involved in a Crank spin-off or Crank 3 itself fills us with joy. Elba. Statham. And maybe The Rock? It's all pie in the sky stuff, but as pie in the sky stuff goes, it's a damn good pie. If you know what we mean.
Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance will be in cinemas come February 17 next year.