Tradecraft: Neo-Eurospy Reboot The Transporter Legacy Coming Next March

The Transporter reboot has a release date. Deadline reports that EuropaCorp USA, the new U.S. distribution arm of Luc Besson's French neo-Eurospy factory EuropaCorp (thanks to a partnership with Relativity), will release The Transporter Legacy on March 6, 2015. As previously reported, Ed Skrein (The Sweeney) steps into the shoes of Jason Statham as professional transporter Frank Martin. Skrein plays Martin at the beginning of his career. The trade provides a brief plot synopsis, revealing that this time out Martin crosses paths with femme fatale Anna (Loan Chabanol, Third Person), who wants him to take down a group of ruthless Russian human traffickers. To ensure his cooperation, Anna kidnaps Frank’s father (Ray Stevenson, Punisher: War Zone). Radivoje Bukvic (Taken) and Anatole Taubman (Quantum of Solace) also star. IGN (via Dark Horizons) premiered the first official photo of Skrein in the role, assuming the traditional Transporter pose in front of a car. The Transporter Legacy is still produced by Besson, but this time around he and series co-creator Robert Mark Kamen are leaving the writing chores to new blood, Bill Collage and Adam Cooper (Exodus: Gods and Kings). Camille Delamarre (Brick Mansions) directs. The big screen Transporter reboot has nothing to do with the television spinoff (which recently debuted to solid numbers on TNT), though Delamarre did cut his teeth directing second unit on the show.

The Transporter Legacy is intended to be the first in a new trilogy of Transporter movies starring Skrein. (And, frankly, its success will depend entirely on his charm. The original Transporter movies worked primarily because Jason Statham had it in spades.) But beyond that trilogy, we're likely to see even more neo-Eurospy movies of this ilk in theaters soon! Deadline reports that EuropaCorp recently secured a new line of credit that will allow them to increase their output from three films per year to eight.