Who Plays Who?

Jason Statham Natalya Rudakova François Berléand Robert Knepper Jeroen Krabbé Alex Kobold David Atrakchi Yann Sundberg Eriq Ebouaney David Kammenos Silvio Simac Oscar Relier Timo Dierkes Igor Koumpan Elef Zack Katia Tchenko Michel Neugarten Farid Elouardi

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

Frank Martin Valentina Tarconi Mr Johnson Leonid Vasilev Leonid's Aide Malcom Manville Flag Ice Driver Market Mighty Joe Thug/Driver Otto Ukraine Cop Mate Leonid's Secretary Sergueï Yuri

What Do The Critics Say

"I can assure you that "Transporter 3" is an awful lot of fun and after it finds its equilibrium, almost intelligent. It didn't take me all of the way there but it came close enough to consider this a most successful trip." David Kempler BIGPICTURE BIGSOUND "Jason Statham's dashing wheelman has stepped into the vacuum and given audiences the shallow, dopey, gadget-heavy, anti-realistic thrills they deserve." Scott Tobias AV CLUB "Transporter 3 is going to make an awful lot of money. It has in abundance the ingredient that was missing from the last Bond film: a sense of its own idiocy." Christopher Tookey UK DAILY MAIL "It is a full-throttle action film which works best if you leave your brain at the door: and there's nothing wrong with that!" Mark Adams UK DAILY MIRROR "If anything, the third is an improvement on its immediate predecessor." Jeff Vice DESERET NEWS "The action here is a lot of fun, and although the final set piece is over just a bit too quickly, there’s enough good stuff here to keep casual fans entertained." David Chen SLASHFILMS "It's insane, it's ridiculous, it's way over the top, and while it might not be the best in the franchise, it mostly delivers what its target audience wants." Christopher Smith BANGOR DAILY NEWS

"Statham has become something of a poor man's James Bond via this international action smorgasbord franchise, and frankly, I'm all for it." Marc Savlov AUSTIN CHRONICLE "Luc Besson's modestly-budgeted but wildly successful franchise shows signs of broadening to include romance and humour." David Gritten UK DAILY TELEGRAPH "Forget the Oscar bait, Transporter 3 is the only movie you need to see this season." Armond White NEW YORK PRESS "If you're addicted to action, it will put you in adrenaline-freak heaven." Michael Sragow BALTIMORE SUN "For those who believe that more is better, Transporter 3 is the best of the unapologetically ridiculous series." Mike Mayo WASHINGTON POST "While the film is admittedly crap from start to finish, I personally found it to be a pretty entertaining piece of crap." Peter Sobczynski EFILMCRITIC "Check your intellect at the door for some raucous movie fun. Statham's deadpan charm and rough and tumble alpha male swagger prove he's loving every minute of being the last action hero left." Diva Velez THE DIVA REVIEW

The Inside Story In 2002, Cory Yuen’s "The Transporter" introduced audiences around the world to former Special Forces officer Frank Martin. A highly skilled courier for underworld criminals, Frank is paid handsomely for not asking questions and never looking at his cargo, but everything changes when he discovers his latest 'package'. A breathless thrill-ride comprised of hand to hand combat and high-speed car chases, the film was shot on a relatively modest budget; yet it struck a chord with action lovers, grossing fourty four million US internationally and establishing Jason Statham as an action star. Three years later, "Transporter 2", directed by Louis Leterrier, followed Frank out of retirement on a dangerous personal assignment. The sequel built on the original’s fervent following, grossing eighty five million US worldwide. With fans still eager for more, director Olivier Megaton and, internationally renowned producer/writer/director Luc Besson ("Le Femme Nikita"& "The Fifth Element") bring to the screen "Transporter 3", which it is hoped will elevate the franchise to an even higher standard of white-knuckle action. "The level of the action this time round has been multiplied by three," says Jason Statham, who played 'Handsome Rob' in "The Italian Job" and who returns once again as 'Transporter', Frank Martin. "The Bourne trilogy propelled action movies into the new millennium. So with this movie, we had to step up our game. Everything is bigger." "In the first two films, the action sequences are very short," French director Olivier Megaton explains. "In this one, they’re longer and more intense, and they build and build. Everything has been conceived to have more extensive sequences and bigger pay-offs." In this third installment, Frank is forced, against his will, by a nefarious government official to take on a new assignment: deliver by car the kidnapped daughter of a Ukrainian official from Marseilles to Odessa. "The only thing Frank knows about this mission is that he's trapped in this car," says Megaton. "For the first time, he's in real danger." Statham ("The Bank Job") says he welcomed the opportunity to return to the series, which marked the beginning of his prolific career as an action star. "It was great being reunited with all the people who gave me my big break in the action world: Luc Besson, Steve Chasman, and Cory Yuen," he said. "It wasn’t so many years ago that I was just playing smaller parts in non-action movies. If it wasn’t for those guys, I wouldn’t be sitting here all these years later making Part Three." Statham confesses that action filmmaking has always been one of his goals as an actor. Even as a child, he had a long-standing desire to be a stuntman. Like most action stars, Statham prepared for the shoot by following a strict diet and exercise regime. Unlike most action stars, he also performed all of the combat scenes himself and performed his own stunts whenever possible. "I really enjoy the different challenges and skills that you have to learn along to way to make all the big stunts believable. It’s really rewarding." "In my eyes, Jason’s becoming the new Bruce Willis," says Megaton. "He has incredible charisma and he’s so physical. He’s also a very instinctive actor. He doesn't need to talk: his eyes convey all the emotions he needs to get across." A the film also provided Statham with an opportunity to further develop aspects of Frank’s character. "He’s a very internal guy. He’d rather talk his way out of a situation. He’s got a soft nature and he wants to live a sort of peaceful life," Statham notes. For the first time in the series, Frank falls in love. In this case, it's with fellow captive, Valentina, played by newcomer Natalya Rudakova. The love story considerably broadens the emotional scope of the film and exposes a new side of Frank Martin. "When he was unattached, Frank was just a cool machine. In love, he's much more vulnerable. He allows himself to express emotion and, above all, he refuses to leave Valentina at the side of the road to save his own skin. The stakes are raised, which adds a new dimension to the character," Megaton revealed. In keeping with Frank’s deepening character, his wardrobe also underwent some adjustments. "We decided to give him a more realistic look. I felt he needed a classier makeover. So we put Jason in a Dior suit and he lost a lot of weight for the movie. His sharper facial features gave him even more physical presence," says the director. Budget pressure created a bonus effect when filming started, yielding more creative, and ultimately better, solutions. "We may not have had 75 million Euros, but we had plenty of ideas," says the director. They made a T-shirt for the crew that said on the back, 'Less talk. More action'. It certainly appears to have worked. "What Olivier brings as a director is something very new and fresh," says Statham ("Crank" & "Mean Machine"). "A lot of the editing and techniques that he uses in putting these sequences together are extremely different to what we did in the first two. It’s incredibly effective." Instrumental to the fight scenes was the signature choreography of two time Golden Horse Award winner Cory Yuen (1993 & '95), who worked with Jet Li ("The Master" 1992), Stephen Chow ("Fist Of Fury II" ) and Jackie Chan ("Dragon Lord" 1982) before moving west to choreograph "Lethal Weapon 4", "X-Men", "Transporter 1 & 2", and "Kiss Of The Dragon". "Cory is just so crucial to the success of these films," Statham attests. "What he has to offer I’ve not seen in ten years of doing what I’ve been doing. He’s so driven by character and personality, and he gets involved to such a great degree. If you give him a location a couple of weeks before you shoot the scene, he can come up with something incredibly creative. I have the utmost respect for the guy." Due to the unique demands of Yuen’s choreography, the production had to launch an extensive search for capable stuntmen. "A lot of the time, people want to go with someone who has a visual look rather than a physical skill," Statham explained. "With this film we absolutely needed both. Fighting an untrained stuntman becomes very, very difficult. The fight sequence itself is all about timing, rhythm and reaction, and you have to have experienced stuntmen to pull it off." many driving stunts brought two other experts into play: Rémi Julienne ("GoldenEye", "Licence to Kill", "The Living Daylights", "A View to a Kill", "Octopussy" & "For Your Eyes Only") and his son Michel ("The Living Daylights", "A View to a Kill" & "For Your Eyes Only" ). Unlike most modern action movies, CGI was used as sparingly as possible, with most stunts being performed on set. "With Michel, our aim was to be as innovative as possible and not use anything he’d already done on previous movies," Megaton says. "All the car chases were filmed at real speed, without models, to capture the pace and feel of reality. That's where you have to come up with new ideas. How do you jump a car onto a train without it smashing up? How do you slide it down the side of truck?" "Every day was a different challenge," he adds, "and most of the solutions were dreamed up on the spot. That's what made the shoot so exciting and such fun." Also returning for the third installment is François Berléand as that loveable French cop, Tarconi. In fact, he's the only French actor in the film! Berléand was candid about his pleasure at being reunited with his British co-star. "We fall into each other's arms every time." And what about the stress the bilingual role has caused him. "The first few days are hard work because my English is very poor," the 2000 César Award winner ("Ma petite entreprise") admits. "You don't act the same way in English as in French. You don't accentuate the same words. That means I have to work with a coach, and it's one of the few times I actually feel nervous on a movie set." The two main co-starring roles went to newcomers. two newcomers to the series. Robert Knepper, who studied drama at Northwestern University and is known to TV audiences around the world as T-Bag in "Prison Break", was cast as Johnson, the government official who blackmails Frank into the transport job. "The character’s complexity really interested me," says Knepper ("The Day the Earth Stood Still"). "I think Johnson’s strangely patriotic and he really believes in his mind that he's doing something: the government's dirty work, for the good of his country and the world. He’s sophisticated and very elegant. He would much rather sit down and have a discussion about an 18 th century book than he would pull out a gun and kill you. It was a lot of fun playing those opposites." "Robert is a tremendous, intense actor,"says Statham. "He just raised the bar for us all and changed the stakes of the film by making Johnson such a formidable bad guy." The huge closing fight scene took two full days to shoot and tested both actors. "It was exhausting," Knepper recalls. "We both got banged up pretty well in that fight. But it's also exhilarating because you really do feel like you're at the Olympics. It just goes on and on and on. You find this reserve inside of you of energy, and you go back and you do it again and again." Making her film debut is Natalya Rudakova. Born and raised in St Petersburg, Russia, Natalya always had an eye for the arts. Since the early onset of childhood she attended drawing and acting class, but during the difficult times of the Soviet Union, her classes came to an end. She was seventeen when her mother decided to relocate her to New York. Screenwriter Luc Besson ("Taken" & "Unleashed"), met her while she was walking home from work as a hairdresser in the streets of New York. Besson suggested she take acting classes. She recalls: "He asked me to try some acting lessons. I did and those turned out wells. Then I had an audition. It was the first time I was in front of a camera. My whole body was shaking." "Working with Natalya was great because it was her first experience making any kind of film," says director Megaton. "She was very naïve, but also very generous, and that quality comes across on screen. Valentina is the complete opposite of Frank, who is so self-controlled. She lives for the moment." Asked to describe her character she replied: "Valentina loves life. She's really crazy like a lot of modern young girls. As the only female character in the movie, she brings spontaneity and spice to the picture." The young woman, who as a teenager in her homeland, got the acting bug from Sunday trips to the theatre, is sure to attract plenty of attention from the Hollywood studios. Synopsis

Frank has turned a job down and offered a substitute driver to transport a package for Mr Johnson. Johnson isn't happy. He's using the package to put pressure on Ukrainian environmental Minister Leonid Vasilev, trying to force through the signing of contracts which will result in the shipping of highly toxic waste out of the country. With a ship awaiting approval to dock, time is running out. Events take a turn for the worse when the substitute driver crashes his car through the wall of Franks house. He doesn't want to leave the car. There's a good reason. While being transported to hospital, he, along with the ambulance crew are blown to smithereens. A pissed off Johnson forces Frank to take the job, and to ensure the package arrives safely, he has Frank rigged with a bracelet that will detonate if he strays more than seventy feet from his car. He soon learns the package is Vasilev's kidnapped daughter, Valentina. Travelling from Marseilles to the Black Sea coastal city of Odessa they are intercepted by a rival group. Frank is forced to push his Audi M8 to the limits if he's to complete his mission and ensure his and Valentina's survival.

The Verdict "Why would you want to see "Transporter 3? Here's a few good reasons. Spectacularly choeographed fight scenes using martial arts. Hair-raising chase sequences featuring Frank's all-aluminum bodied, all wheel drive Audi M8 tear-arsing through spectacular european scenery while being chased by ugly and heavily armed assassins. Valentina, a gorgeous and seductive Russian doll (played by Natalya Rudakova), who ensures Frank breaks more rules in this film than he did in the last two combined. Oh yes, there's more! The ladies in the audience won't be disappointed. They can drool over a half-naked Frank, flexing his muscles as he fights off more baddies than you could throw a stick at. Of course you want get any academy award winning dialogue, but as usual, the soundtrack is a beauty. Talk about fast and furious: "Transporter 3 has more than it's share, especially if your in a cinema which has a first class speaker system. It's bold! It's brassy! It's ballsy! What is it? It's "Transporter 3. More of the same for fans who love fast cars, hot Russian chicks, great chases and seeing bad guys getting the crap beaten out of them. What are you waiting for? It doesn't require the IQ of Einstien to realize this could be a lot of fun! Recommended for those who don't want to think about the improbabilities and impossibilities in the storyline. After all: it's only a movie! Park the brain and let Frank do the driving. 4 STARS." Crew Bytes "TRANSPORTER 3" was .......
directed by Olivier Megaton ["La Sirène rouge"]; casting by Swan Pham ["The Code", "The First Time I Turned Twenty" and "13th District"]; art direction by Arnaud Le Roch ["Lila Says", "Camping" and "Disco"] and Patrick Schmitt ["Madeline", "The Truth About Charlie" and "Tonight I'll Sleep at Yours"]; costume design by Olivier Bériot ["Unleashed", "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" and "Taken"]; production design by Patrick Durand ["Border Line", "Diary of a Seducer" and "The Passenger"]; cinematography by Giovanni Fiore Coltellacci ["Body to Body", " O' Jerusalem" and "Oliviero Rising"]; original music by Alexandre Azaria ["That's All Folks", "Transporter 2" and "Love and Other Disasters"]. Run Time 100 minutes Rated M [AUST] Copyright ©2009 - Icon Film Distribution - All Rights Reserved Enduring © All Rights Reserved - The Movie Pages & Impact Internet Services - Protected by Australian & International Copyright. Trademark Laws Apply.