At 89 years old, B-movie producer Roger Corman is still churning out movies at a pace that would exhaust many younger, lesser hucksters. He produced two deliciously portmanteau-heavy creature features, CobraGator and Sharktopus Vs. Whalewolf, in 2015, and now The Hollywood Reporter brings word that he’s producing Death Race 2050, a sequel to his exploitation classic Death Race 2000. (“Classic” being a relative term, of course.)
Sadly, much of the talent behind Death Race 2000 is no longer with us: Director Paul Bartel died in 2000, and star David Carradine in 2009. And getting Sylvester Stallone back for another round of pedestrian-slaughtering mayhem might be difficult now that he’s been nominated for his third Oscar. (Stallone co-starred as champion racer/Italian stereotype Machine Gun Joe Viterbo in the 1975 original, one year before Rocky.)
But no matter: This time around, Corman’s got Malcolm McDowell, who, when he’s not co-starring on surprise Golden Globes winner Mozart In The Jungle, has created a nice little sideline for himself being charmingly menacing in B-movies. (He played characters named both Dr. Doobie and Boss Monster in 2015.) McDowell’s role in the film isn’t yet clear, but he will be starring alongside Manu Bennett, an actor probably best known for his roles as Azog in the Hobbit movies and as Slade Wilson on Arrow, who will take over for Carradine (or Luke Goss, for the Paul W.S. Anderson fans out there) as the mysterious Frankenstein.
It’s also unclear how the action will be updated from 2000—a year remembered fondly for its Von Dutch hats, rigged presidential election, and televised vehicular bloodsport—to the year 2050. But presumably goofy eye makeup will be involved, because The Hunger Games was recently a thing. Production on Death Race 2050 is currently underway in Peru.