We were reporting back in August that Paul W.S. Anderson, the mastermind behind 2008's schlocky Death Race, was planning a prequel for the film. Now Spoiler TV has gotten their hands on a casting call for the film, and oh yes, Death Race: Frankenstein Lives is totally on. Statham won't be part of it, but plenty of tricked-out cars crashing into each other should make up for that.
Despite the title that suggests the mantle of Frankenstein passing on to someone else after the events of the first film, the lineup seems to indicate a prequel. One of the main female characters, a "model-turned-journalist," seems to be the early version of the Joan Allen character, a schemer who comes up with the Death Race "when ratings for her gladiator-style television show begin plummeting." Soon enough she targets Carl "Luke" Lucas as her potential star, a guy who is "handsome and confident, with a hint of danger." There's also casting for a sexy card girl for the matches, an Australian white supremacist, and even an Asian gang member who's "a combination of Bruce Lee and Genghis Khan." Fun!
Word on the street is that the sequel will be going direct to DVD, which really isn't that much of a surprise-- as much as I enjoyed the first Death Race, I wouldn't have told anyone to run out to see it in theaters. In a few years this sequel will be sitting right alongside the first film on a DVD shelf somewhere, and you can go home very happy with the silliest, most violent double feature imaginable.
