2008’s “Death Race,” a remake of the cult Roger Corman movie “Death Race 2000,” was slightly less dreadful than Paul W.S. Anderson’s previous films, in the same way that getting punched in the stomach is slightly better than getting punched in the head (unless you’re Harry Houdini, but we digress). Following Sony’s, um, “success” with a series of unnecessary direct-to-video sequels to movies that no-one cared about, most of which star Johnathon Schaech, for some reason (“8MM2?” “Road House 2?” “Hollow Man 2?”), Universal has followed suit, starting its DVD Originals label, which began last month with the entirely redundant “Smokin’ Aces 2: Assassin’s Ball.”
“Death Race 2,” a prequel to Anderson’s film, will be next up for the banner, and will focus on someone called Frankenstein, who apparently was in the original film, although we’re drawing a blank. He’ll be played by former boy band member and pal of Guillermo Del Toro, Luke Goss, who turned in exactly the same performance in both “Blade 2” and “Hellboy 2,” while the supporting cast includes muscled action staples like Danny Trejo and Ving Rhames. The inconsistent Sean Bean (terrific in “Lord of the Rings” and “Red Riding,” terrible in most of his paycheck gigs) will also appear, presumably as the villain (he’s credited as ‘Mob Boss’ on the IMDB page, which is probably all the characterization he’ll have to work with). Someone called Lauren Cohan, who’s apparently in the CW’s “Supernatural” will also star.
The plot reads like an lower-budget retread of the original, which follows the pattern of most of these DTV sequels. Anderson and producing partner Jeremy Bolt will produce, while the film, if you can call it that, will be directed by Roel Reine, who’s most notable credit is the Steven Seagal film “Pistol Whipped.”
