Action iconJason Stathamsaw huge success last year with the wild action thrillerThe Beekeeper,with a sequel now officially on the way. With his return as the world’s best assassin-turned-beekeeper-turned-assassin again, there are plenty of previous franchises led by The Stath that could come back for more, with one of the actor and martial artist’s former directors eager to work with the action superstar again.
Speaking with MovieWeb’s own George Edelman, directorSimon West, who helmed the Statham vehiclesThe Expendables 2, Wild Card,andThe Mechanic, says he’d love to reunite with The Stath and is “sure” they will do something again in the future. So, couldThe Mechanic 3finally be on the cards?
Jason Statham’s Mysterious New Action Thriller Gets the Perfect Hype From Co-star
In an exclusive chat with MovieWeb’s George Edelman, Ackie teased The Stath’s collaboration with ‘Angel Has Fallen’ director Ric Roman Waugh.
“Yeah, yeah. I mean, I’ve done three movies with Jason, and we always enjoy working with each other. And I think, you know, we’re both proud of the films we did together. So every now and again, you know, there’ll be something that comes up and I think, “Oh, Jason might like this.” And if, if you know he’s available or is interested, he hasn’t done something like it, we would definitely talk about it. So I’m sure we’ll do something in the future together, because we really enjoy working together. It’s just got to be the right thing for both of us, that we both want to do something different and not the same, as you know either of us have done or either of us have done together. We always want to do something a little bit different. So it’s finding that magic project really.”
Action Fans Would Love to See Jason Statham Return as ‘The Mechanic’s Arthur Bishop
The firstThe Mechanic, which was released in 2011 and was itself a remake of the 1972 film of the same name starring Charles Bronson, was helmed by Simon West andfinds Statham starring as Arthur Bishop, an elite assassin who works to a strict code. After he is forced to kill his friend and mentor, Harry (Donald Sutherland), Bishop takes Harry’s son (Ben Foster) under his wing while trying to keep him from finding out the truth about his father’s murder.
While a West-less sequel,Mechanic: Resurrection,was released back in 2016, and finds Statham’s Arthur Bishop tasked with carrying out several seemingly impossible hits, a third outing has yet to emerge. However, with bothThe MechanicandMechanic: Resurrectionbothblowing up on streaming recently, and with West and Statham eager to work together again, here’s hoping they reunite and finally bring Bishop back.
As well as teaming up with Jason Statham, Simon West also directed theaction classicCon Airstarring Nicolas Cage. Speaking further with MovieWeb, the filmmaker revealed the difference between working with the two leading men and action heroes…
“The things that are surprising are not really, necessarily about the action. You know, there’s certain weird little things that happen on set that you you don’t expect, like I with Nicolas Cage and Jason Statham. The contrast there is, I both had a scene where they had to write a letter, and Nicolas Cage has terrible handwriting. Can’t read at all. And Jason Statham has the most beautiful handwriting you’ve ever seen in your life, which is very, you know, it’s very unexpected to me, you know, I would think, you know, tough guy like Jason wouldn’t bother. But he obviously was taught, you know, when some school had taught him to write absolutely beautifully. And, you know, so those are the surprising things, the action things, you know, everybody is sort of has a slightly different style.”
The Mechanic
