It’s been common knowledge for quite sometime that Luc Besson’s production company Europacorp (the company behind releases such as The Transporter film series, and Taken) have been planning on adapting The Transporter for a TV series; something which is drawing ever closer, as a leading man has just been hired.
British actor Chris Vance (who’s been seen in series’ such as Prison Break and Dexter) has signed on to play the role made famous by Jason Statham (The Mechanic); that of the wheelman Frank Martin, who does whatever it takes to deliver his cargo, never misses a deadline, and never breaks a promise.
The Transporter series has been commissioned for a run of twelve episodes by Cinemax, will co-star Hungarian model Andrea Osvart (who’s appearing as a “crafty” CIA handler named Carla), and cost about the same as a single movie; meaning the action should remain fairly strong, particularly as the series is being helped along by the same stunt team who worked on The Transporter films.
It’s not clear if the show will adopt an episodic format with a single mission per-episode, or consist of longer arcs, however we do know that shooting is due to being this coming summer, with an eye to air the new action series next year, but can The transporter work on the small screen? and is Chris Vance a worthy successor to Jason Statham? that remains to be seen.
Matt Wheeldon.
Source: Deadline.
