Crank is possibly the most demented film in years - and its sequel, Crank 2: High Voltage,** **which apparently begins right where the previous film ended, looks like it's going to offer more of the same. With Jason Statham already signed up to return for more adrenalin-fuelled mayhem (literally in the case of these films), the rest of the cast has just been filled out.
Amy Smart returns as the girlfriend of the beleaguered hero/anti-hero Chev Chelios (The Stath) with Clifton Collins Jr., who you may remember as murderer Perry Smith in Capote, as Chelios' mobster nemesis. Sadly there's no word yet on whether Collins has a name as fantastic as "Chev Chelios".
The plot this time sees the mobster steal Chelios' nearly indestructible heart (well, he had to survive that fall at the end of the first film somehow), replacing it with a battery-powered ticker that requires regular jolts to keep it going. Expect transplant nightmares to follow.
Crazy dresser Bai Ling is joining up, along with returning faces Dwight Yoakum (who plays Chelios' doctor) and Efren "Pedro from Napoleon Dynamite" Ramirez (who cameoed in the first film as a cross-dressing informant). Shooting starts later this month in LA, with Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor once again writing and directing. So can lightning strike twice? Can this be as bat-shit crazy as the first film? And will they find another excuse for Jason Statham to perform acrobatic tricks on a speeding motorcycle while wearing only a loosely-tied hospital gown? We can only hope, people, we can only hope.