Death Race 3000 Tagged Articles at Cinematical

ComicCon is officially over ... or has it just begun?

• MTV caught up with Sam Raimi over the weekend, and (as most of us have done and will continually do until the man either throws a punch or gives up a plot point) hassled him about Spider-Man 4. Has anything changed since the director said he wasn't sure if he'd be helming a fourth installment? Kind of. A meeting has finally taken place between Raimi, Avi Arad and Laurie Ziskin -- they're "beginning to gear up to meet with writers" and Raimi still looks extremely uncomfortable in his own skin. The man still doesn't know if he will direct, but he does "want a hand in bringing it to the screen." As far as which villains will show up, Raimi has some ideas but would like to hear from writers on where they think Spidey should go from here. I say he should go to Iraq and help solve some problems over there, but that's me.
• Dark Horizons caught up with screenwriters Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon (Reno 911, Balls of Fury) at The Con, and the boys said they're beginning work on the script to Night at the Museum 2. The duo (who also penned the original) are keeping plot details under wraps, but say "there'll be existing characters and plenty of new ones." Both Ben Stiller and Robin Williams are set to reprise their roles. Man, what I would give to see a Salvador Dali exhibit somehow factor into the equation.
• Director Paul W.S. Anderson was also blabbing to folks over the weekend. He told IGN that Tyrese Gibson and Joan Allen have joined the cast (which already has Jason Statham playing one of the leads) of Death Race 3000; a remake of the 1975 flick starring Sylvester Stallone and David Carradine. Gibson is no stranger to high-speed chases, having also starred in 2 Fast 2 Furious. The film will revolve an ultra-violent futuristic car race in which drivers are awarded points for mowing down innocent pedestrians. Can't wait to see the lawsuits that come from this flick -- "Dude, I seriously hit that guy because I thought I'd get 10,000 points. I'm innocent -- blame the movie!" Says Anderson about the film: "We start shooting in four weeks time in Montreal. Jason Statham's playing Frankenstein and Machine Gun Joe's played by Tyrese Gibson. And Joan Allen is the big villain baddie of the movie, which I'm very excited about. She's gonna kick Statham's ass!"

For some, news that Paul W. S. Anderson was going to head the Castlevania movie was comparable to running sharp fingernails down a chalkboard, for others like our Scott Weinberg, it was enough to get the anxious blood pumping. Depending on your excitement level, you might be happy or ticked to find out that the latest rumors say that the director has left the film. According to sources at Dread Central, Anderson is off the project, but they're not sure if he was unhappy with how things were progressing or just impatient. Cinematical has been covering the film since back in 2005, so it sure isn't moving very fast.

For those not familiar with all things Konami, Castlevania is a long-running video game series that pits the vampire-hunting Belmont family against Dracula. Me, I can take the news or leave it. I try not to get too amped about a video game or comic book adaptation unless I really, really like the director attached, like Sam Raimi. What I am more anxious about is the fact that he isn't dropping out of Death Race 3000. Give him Castlevania, but don't let him mess with the likes of Sly's Death Race 2000! (Yeah, I'm much more of a Goonies II fan than a Castlevania fan.) It's not so much a slight against him, but the desire for some crappy goodness to exist free of a re-visiting.

[via Dark Horizons]

In case this is the first time you've heard of such a thing, let me clear it up for you: Yes, someone is creating a remake of Death Race 2000 -- although thanks to the changing times, it will actually be called Death Race 3000. Yeah, I know it is weird, but you're going to have to believe me on this one. If you are sadly uneducated, Death Race is mostly just a story about guys in the future who kill pedestrians with their vehicles to score points in this game they play. It is easily one of the most classic B-movies of all time.

The story has been put into the very willing hands of director Paul W.S. Anderson, who will both write and direct the remake. Roger Corman, the producer of the original and a longtime genre geek favorite, recently took a few minutes to discuss the update with Sci Fi Wire. Sadly, Corman is mostly uninvolved in Anderson's film, although he does have a contract which calls him "executive producer." According to Corman, this means he gets to read and comment on all versions of the script -- but he said he doesn't spend much time on it because "I don't believe I will have that much influence."

I still have trouble wrapping my brain around someone bringing Death Race 2000 back to life, mostly because it is such a standard in the B-movie world these days. It is sad the Corman isn't going to be involved, but I guess it gives him an out if the film disappoints. So in order to succeed, does it need to be a fantastic movie ... or a self-aware, cheesy, tongue-in-cheek sorta flick? I'm not really sure, to be honest.