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In The Year 2000 Hit And Run Driving Is No Longer A Felony. It’s The National Sport!

Question: What could possibly be more kick-ass than a Paul Bartel (television actor/director) cult classic starring both David Carradine and Sylvester Stallone about a brutal cross-country road race, set in the futuristic year 2000 (the movie was released in 1975), in which drivers purposefully run down pedestrians to score points along the way?

Answer: A remake starring Transporter badass Jason Statham and JLO brand spokesmodel Natalie Martinez, of course!

The remake, with the working titles Death Race and Death Race 3000 (okay… 3000? Is that just a cutesy way to tie the remake’s title in with the original, or is it actually going to be set in the year 3000? Are we really looking that far ahead already?), is set in a future version of the U.S. and tells the story of a prison inmate (Statham) forced by his warden to complete a cutthroat car race alongside fellow inmates just weeks before his release.

While all the latest buzz revolves around model/actress Natalie Martinez’ recent decision to join the Death Race cast (apparently lots of people—coughguyscough—think she’s hot… but she’s meh compared to Rose McGowan, Angelina Jolie and Kate Beckinsale, in my humble opinion), the most genius move thus taken by the film’s production crew—which includes director Paul W.S. Anderson and Pretty Woman screenwriter J.F. Lawton in collaboration with producers Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner (Cruise/Wagner Productions) and Universal Studios—is talking Jason Statham into playing the film’s protagonist, Frankenstein.

Statham has been on fire as of late, transitioning from a supporting I’m-going-to-break-your-skull thug (Cellular, Collateral) into an up-and-coming Hollywood action star with movies like The Transporter, Transporter 2, Crank, and his upcoming Jet Li collaboration War (in theaters tomorrow).

Filming for Death Race is set to begin late this month and the film has a scheduled release date of September 2008.