It has been in development since at least February, but the sequel to the 2011 Jason Statham-led action thriller remake** The Mechanic** has now pencilled in a name – Mechanic: Resurrection – and a couple of co-stars to aid (or possibly hinder) The Stath in his hit man endeavours, with Tommy Lee Jones and Jessica Alba signing up.
German director Dennis Gansel has long since been attached to take the megaphone over from Simon West, and he’ll pump cinematic life into a script by Philip Shelby, Tony Mosher, Rachel Long and Brian Pittman.
As the sequel kicks off, Statham’s Arthur Bishop has tried to quit the business, clearly forgetting the first rule of movie hit men: you can never leave and trouble will follow you if you do. In this case, the arrival of someone from his past forces him back into the business, and Bishop has to complete an impossible list of assassinations of the most dangerous men in the world.
Millenium Films has the rights for sale at the American Film Market and has just announced that Mechanic: Resurrection will hit US cinemas on January 22, 2016. If it keeps to the same pattern as the original, we can expect it to arrive on UK screens the same day.