"Rules Remain The Same, Except Some Changes."

I recall first seeing that tagline attached to a billboard touting The Transporter 3 at Cannes last May (whether or not I actually saw the picture at JoBlo.com then, all that matters is they still have it now) and dismissed it as a clumsy phrase with something perhaps lost in the translation from the European investors into big, fat, shiny English.

And yet IGN has the first domestic teaser up for the film, and that tagline appears nearly verbatim. I probably shouldn't care, and you probably don't, but it's just a further indication that even the filmmakers -- well, their marketing team -- have barely half a heart in this puppy.

Now that we know the storyline for Crank 2: High Voltage is going to be a little wacky, it might give these latest behind-the-scenes photos some context. The Bad and the Ugly scored some pictures of the returning Amy Smart in all her topless glory (the pics are a little NSFW, so consider yourself warned), along with Jason Statham, and Corey Haim (rocking one heck of a mullet) hard at work on the action thriller.

Picking up where the last film left off, Statham returns as Chev Chelios, the hitman with a need for adrenaline. This time, though, he's got a busted artificial heart that requires jolts of electricity to keep it pumping. There is also something about a 100-year-old gangster named Hu Dong, but it all gets a little confusing after that.

Earlier in the week JFX Online paparazzi had taken some photos on set (mainly of Smart), but had been asked to remove them (the photos are still all over the web, so JFX has since put them back online). Their reporter even took a few cheap shots at the production, but has since retracted those comments. Writer-directors Brian Taylor and Mark Neveldine have already taken their fare share of criticism for the first film, but I know for a fact there are plenty of people who couldn't care less about the critics, and they can't wait until Crank 2 hits theaters in 2009.

As Scott told us last October, there's a sequel to Crank on the way. This might seem surprising, considering the ending, but movies can make just about anything happen. This one will somehow take the seemingly finite ending and continue the story without the use of "dream sequences or long-lost twin brothers." Now, months after Jason Statham signed on for more Crank action, we've got the supporting cast for Crank 2: High Voltage. Variety reports that Chev's girlfriend, Amy Smart is back, plus Dwight Yoakam and Efren Ramirez. But that's not all -- Bai Ling has also signed on, along with Clifton Collins Jr., who will play Chev's nemesis.

This time around, "Chelios faces a mobster who has stolen his nearly indestructible heart and replaced it with a battery-powered ticker that requires regular jolts of electricity to keep working." If it's not low heart-rates and poison, it's mechanical hearts and electric jolts. He should ditch Eve and hook up with Gwen from Angel -- a girl with electric hands could come in handy for this action tale. I guess Clifton is the mobster, but there's no word on who Bai Ling will play -- perhaps a butt-kicking henchwoman.

The sequel kicks into production on April 28 in Los Angeles.