Banlieue 13 Tagged Articles at Cinematical

When it reached American audiences two years after it opened in France, 2006's District 13 (or B13 here) served as a breezy introduction to the art of parkour, not to mention director Pierre Morel's knack for shooting action sequences both energetically and visibly (an underrated quality, that last one). Morel moved on to Taken, though, while parkour began to infiltrate more high-profile Hollywood fare, like Casino Royale and Live Free or Die Hard.

However, writer/producer/all-around action maven Luc Besson stuck around to cash in on the promise of a follow-up, and now we're greeted with District 13: Ultimatum, a competent if flabby rehash of the first film's race-against-time plot and dystopian setting.

Supposedly retired action maverick* Luc Besson, currently making the rounds on behalf of Transporter 3 (which he produced), told Collider that not only was 1997's The Fifth Element supposed to be the first in a trilogy, but that he also has vague plans for another sci-fi trilogy after finishing up the two sequels that no one asked for to Arthur and the Invisibles (see a pattern here?).

I must say: more power to the man if he just keeps coming up with ideas and happens to be good at executing them. As flimsy as his promise of retirement has been, if it brings us a sequel to District B13 and the reportedly entertaining Liam Neeson vehicle Taken (which doesn't open in the States until next January), then I can live with watching him keep on keepin' on, as it were.

(Well, except for those Arthur flicks, but perhaps that's a finger of blame better pointed towards the Weinsteins...)

*Us film bloggers are taking this word back, damn it.

I was determined to see Banlieue 13, or District 13, as soon as I saw David Belle fly feet-first through a transom. (That little ditty, in the middle of one sweet parkour scene, is above.) Action scenes usually don't prompt me to watch a movie, but the fluidity of the action was just too much to pass up. No, the film is not the greatest cinematic achievement; however, it did make me a huge Belle fan, itching for another Belle/parkour-based film.

And now it looks like we're getting it. Twitch noticed a casting call for Banlieue 14 on the official parkour website, and Allocine.fr reports that Patrick Allesandrin will direct the film, from a script by Luc Besson, when production starts next month.

While there was a casting call, I'm really hoping that this will be another Belle-starring feature. You can't really get better parkour than from the man who created it. Maybe Leito becomes a part-cop, or renegade hero, and sets out to help out other districts in France? Are you ready for more parkour?

Made at a rumored cost of just over $15 million, and released in the US with the support of an advertising budget that appears to consist of $100 and a ball of string, District B13 is miles from the studio bloat of such tentpole summer movies as Mission: Impossible III and The Da Vinci Code. In place of contrived storylines and massive stars crisscrossing the globe, District B13 offers the awesome, graceful power of parkour alongside a simple story, sneaky wit and 90 minutes of thrilling, absolutely gleeful action. It might just be the best action movie of the summer.

Co-written and produced by Luc Besson and directed by long-time action cinematographer Pierre Morel, the film is set in the Paris of 2010, a city so ravaged by crime and poverty that walls have been erected around the poorest districts to keep the trouble in. As a side effect, of course, most of the help and hope is kept out. Within District B13, there is a single building untouched by the drugs and crime that dominate the rest of the walled city, and that building's unofficial mayor is Leito (David Belle). Though he keeps his building and it's occupants meticulously clean, Leito is in no way above using the same tools and tricks as the criminals he abhors: The building is guarded by heavily-armed thugs and, when we first meet Leito, he's frantically try to destroy the €1 million worth of cocaine that he stole from a K2, a thuggish District B13 gangster. Not surprisingly, K2's boss, Taha, wants payment for the coke, and he wants it now. Despite being captured in his own hideout and turned over to the police by Leito, Taha nevertheless manages to escape, taking Leito's gorgeous, ass-kicking sister (Lola, played by Dany Verissimo) with him.