17 Feb – The twice-"Crank"ed, thrice-"Transporter"ed and most likely to be re-"Expendable" star is currently eyeballing the espionage thriller "Echelon", which previously had Eric Bana attached as former British Special Air Service (SAS) soldier Nick Stone, according to Deadline.
The Stone character has appeared in thirteen books written by actual ex-SAS member Andy McNab, and "Echelon" will be based on the novel "Firewall" (renamed to avoid confusion with the Harrison Ford non-thriller).
Simon Crane, the stunt coordinator of "The Tourist" and "Salt" is making his feature debut on the director's seat with "Echelon" while Ashok Amritraj of Hyde Park Entertainment will act as the producer alongside veteran casting agent Bonnie Timmermann ("Public Enemies") as well as Steve Chasman who has worked with Statham ever since "Transporter" in 2002.
Statham would play Nick Stone, an SAS soldier who finds himself caught between the Russian Mafia and western secret agents who are trying to get their hands on the Echelon computer program.
"Echelon" will be based on the novel by McNab, who wrote the bestselling non-fiction account "Bravo Two Zero" inspired by his experience of going behind enemy lines in the first Iraq war before branching out into thrillers featuring his Nick Stone character in a series of Young Adult books.
A tentative release date is yet to be scheduled for the movie.
"The Mechanic" tells the story of an elite assassin named Arthur Bishop (Jason Statham) who goes on a personal trail of vengeance to exterminate the one who murdered his mentor as well as close friend and finds himself taking a protégé who also happens to his dead friend's son.
Cinema Online's "The Mechanic" guests recently got the opportunity to catch Statham in action at TGV Sunway Pyramid. After the screening, we asked some of our viewers what they thought of the movie overall and how many stars would they rate it out of 5.
"The Mechanic" will be showing at cinemas in Malaysia on 17 February 2011.