Jason Statham’s next movie after The Beekeeper can break a streak of bad luck he’s had with adapting novels. After his breakout roles in Guy Ritchie’s early work, Statham moved swiftly into action movies. To the shock of many, he molded himself into a modern-day action star in the vein of Sylvester Stallone or Jean-Claude Van Damme, during a time when CGI-heavy blockbusters shrunk the market for those types of movies. Despite some misses along the way, Jason Statham’s movies have proven consistently popular for over 20 years and counting.
Statham’s Beekeeper is one of the biggest solo hits of his career and is likely to receive a sequel. Statham will reunite with Beekeeper director David Ayer and Expendables co-star Stallone on Levon’s Trade for his next project. The star will play Levon Cade, a retired special operative who returns to his former work when his boss’ daughter is kidnapped. Levon’s Trade sounds like Statham is remaking his past work in many ways, but it has all the ingredients to keep his winning streak – Expendables 4 asides – going.
Jason Statham’s Levon’s Trade Can Break His Bad Luck With Novel Adaptations
Statham hasn’t had much luck with potential franchises based on books
Levon’s Trade is based on a series of novels by author Chuck Dixon, so if the first film is a success, there’s plenty of source material for a sequel. The star and his team are no doubt aware of this, but Levon’s Trade can break Statham’s poor luck when it comes to building a franchise around a book character. He’s tried this many times in the past, and the results are (almost) always the same. The first was 2011’s Blitz, based on a novel by Ken Bruen.
This cast Statham as Breun’s recurring character Brant, a London detective who chases after a killer who targets policemen. Blitz did respectable business internationally, but went straight to DVD in the States, killing any sequel hopes. Statham’s next franchise non-starter was Parker, based on the hard-boiled novels by the late Donald E. Westlake. Despite hopes the 2013 adaptation would kick off a run of Parker movies, the film flamed out at $47 million, just about covering its production budget (via Box Office Mojo).
Stallone’s first attempt to create a series for his action heir apparent was 2013’s Homefront, based on the book by Chuck Logan. Stallone originally penned Homefront as a Rambo sequel but later rewrote it as a straight-ahead adaptation, where Statham’s retired DEA agent Phil Broker and his daughter are targeted by local drug dealers. Homefront received tepid reviews but performed respectably – just not enough to excite people about a direct sequel.
Why Statham’s Previous Adaptations Failed To Launch Franchises
Most of these Statham movies took the wrong approach
All of these Statham adaptations took a popular book character and tried to mold them around his action persona, but they all made key mistakes. Blitz featured a great cast (including Aiden Gillen, Paddy Considine and Zawe Ashton), but it was essentially an ITV detective drama with a bigger budget. Once the credits roll on Blitz, it feels like the story is done. The film at least gave Statham a little more meat to chew on, character-wise.
Parker took one of literature’s best anti-heroes, sanded off his rough edges and made a bland thriller with forgettable action scenes. Outside of the film co-starring Jennifer Lopez, there’s little intriguing about the film, and its underperformance sealed off any chances for a follow-up. Homefront made the error of adapting the last Phil Broker novel, making it feel like the end of a franchise, not the beginning.
Other Parker adaptations include 1967’s Point Blank starring Lee Marvin, The Outfit with Robert Duvall and Mel Gibson’s Payback .
On that last point, Levon’s Trade will start from the beginning of Dixon’s Levon Cade series. This will at least give future movies a place to build towards, and having collaborators like Ayer and Stallone won’t hurt its odds either.
Statham’s Only Literary Success Was WAY Outside His Comfort Zone
Horror movies aren’t usually Statham’s cup of tea
Levon’s Trade will be Jason Statham’s fourth attempt to turn a series of thriller books into a movie franchise, so hopefully, it will click this time. His track record might be spotty, but it wouldn’t be fair to claim Statham’s novel adaptations have all failed since there’s one giant exception: The Meg movies. These adapted Steve Alten’s novels and cast Statham as rescue diver Jonas, who battles against the titular giant sharks.
Statham horror movies are fairly rare – outside of John Carpenter’s Ghosts of Mars, naturally – so starring in The Meg was outside the actor’s comfort zone. They’re big-budget, PG-13 blockbusters that take a sci-fi/horror approach, unlike the gritty trappings of Blitz, Parker or even recent hits like The Beekeeper. It was a risk that paid off though, considering the success of the first two entries. It’s doubtful Levon’s Trade will hit the same numbers as The Meg though.