If you’ve noticed this correspondent juddering with barely-repressed excitement over the past few days, it’s because it’s real, it’s happening, it’s finally taking place.
It, of course, is filming of Transporter 3, the long-awaited closer of what will automatically become the greatest movie trilogy of all time [Ed’s note – the scary thing is he’s only half-kidding], and the movie which will see Jason Statham’s hard-as-nails Frank Martin return to bash some bad guy heads in.
It’s been going on for about a week now, on location in Paris (and shortly to move to Russia), as The Stath told us himself last week at The Bank Job premiere.
But apart from that, little else is known about the movie, save for the fact that it’s directed, in the absence of Louis Leterrier, who’s moved onto bigger things with The Incredible Hulk, by the wonderfully-named Olivier Megaton.
But as of today we do know that Francois Berleand, who plays Tarconi, the cop who initially hunted Martin in The Transporter, only to become his ally in Transporter 2, has signed on to reprise his role as the loveable old rogue.
Also, from the look of things, Frank Martin has found his nemesis in the shape of Prison Break’s Robert Knepper.
Knepper plays T-Bag on the gritty TV show and, as fans will know, he makes an excellent villain – rotten to the core, but smarter than your average and curiously three-dimensional. We’re guessing that, at 48 years of age, he won’t be the one going toe-to-toe with The Stath in a punch-up, but he should certainly be a hissable bad guy.
Needless to say, we’re on the case with this one. More info to follow – as long as The Stath doesn’t find us snooping around. He can take out an entire town with one look, you know.