Back at the beginning of January we brought you the original trailer for Bad Ass, an indie actioner starring Danny Trejo, based on the infamous YouTube clip of "Epic Beard Man" delivering a beat-down on a bus. At the time, we were cautious about being taken in by a hoax.
We took a poll. 29% of you were convinced it was a wind-up. The bus crash seemed *very *similar to one in Red Heat. Daily Grindhouse got hold of the director Craig Moss, and were none the wiser for having done so. But it turns out our suspicions were unfounded: here's a brand spanking new trailer for Bad Ass, which comes complete with confirmation of a US theatrical release on April 13, and an R rating for head-kickery.
If you're new here, the source of this nonsense is a YouTube video documenting an argument on an Oakland, California bus between the 67-year-old Thomas Bruso (wearing a pale blue "I Am A Motherfucker" t-shirt) and a guy called Michael. It's unclear what starts the altercation, but it ends with a pummelling for Michael, after which Bruso is kicked off the bus and seen raving in the street, and Michael bleeds all over the seats.
After the last trailer, we speculated that the story had been twisted into a Death Wish, but this time, with the reveal that Trejo starts out sitting on his porch telling war stories with an old buddy who's then murdered by local thugs, we're going to say that it's more like Harry Brown. Only with extra explosions.
The addition of that initial set up is the main difference between the new trailer and the first, plus some new Grindhouse-y intertitles, and a shot at the end of Charles S. Dutton asking for an "amberlamps": a reference to Michael's particular pronunciation of "ambulance".
Ron Perlman, of course, also co-stars. London's SC International have confirmed to Empire that they've been handling international sales, but there are no announced release dates outside the US so far.