The race is on August 22.Ex-con Jensen Ames (Statham) is forced by the warden of a notorious prison (Allen) to compete in our post-industrial world’s most popular sport: a car race in which inmates must brutalize and kill one another on the road to victory.

The race is on August 22.

Model Natalie Martinez is negotiations to star as the romantic lead opposite Jason Statham in “Death Race,” Universal Pictures’ remake of the Roger Corman cult classic being directed by Paul W.S. Anderson. She joins a cast that includes Joan Allen, Ian McShane and Tyrese Gibson.

“Death Race” sees a future America in which prison inmates are forced to brutally compete in an enclosed arena. Statham is starring as a prisoner who, with only weeks to go before his release, is coerced into being a driver in a road rally to the death and becomes a crowd favorite called Frankenstein. Martinez will play Case, a woman who is assigned to be Statham’s navigator and ends up assisting him in his plan to escape the prison.

Shooting is scheduled to start this month in Montreal.

Spiderman 4
Sam Raimi has given his strongest indication yet that he may return to the director’s chair for Spider-Man’s fourth outing. He spoke exclusively to Empire at Comic-Con, he confirmed he isn’t completely averse to the idea.

“I want to help contribute to the production,” he said. “I don’t know if I’ll just be a producer on it but if I can work with the writer in such a way so that directing would be right for me, I don’t know. We’ve had our first meeting on Spider-Man 4 and we’re looking for the writer.”

Night at the Museum 2
Dark Horizons caught up with screenwriters Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon (Reno 911, Balls of Fury) at The Con, and the boys said they’re beginning work on the script to Night at the Museum 2. The duo (who also penned the original) are keeping plot details under wraps, but say “there’ll be existing characters and plenty of new ones.”

Death Race
Director Paul W.S. Anderson was also blabbing to folks over the weekend. He told IGN that Tyrese Gibson and Joan Allen have joined the cast (which already has Jason Statham playing one of the leads) of Death Race 3000; a remake of the 1975 flick starring Sylvester Stallone and David Carradine.

“Dude, I seriously hit that guy because I thought I’d get 10,000 points. I’m innocent — blame the movie!” Says Anderson about the film: “We start shooting in four weeks time in Montreal. Jason Statham’s playing Frankenstein and Machine Gun Joe’s played by Tyrese Gibson. And Joan Allen is the big villain baddie of the movie, which I’m very excited about. She’s gonna kick Statham’s ass!”

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