Is rebooting really necessary? Couldn't they just cast him as a different lead character? I really doubt Frank Martin is the only wheelman in France.

But reboot or not, I don't see this being successful without Statham.

Also, unless my memory is playing tricks on me his character was meant to be American right (I distinctly remember him having one of the worst American accents ever)? If that is the case, it is odd that they have used Brits for both the TV series and the reboot. Or possibly the accent was so bad people didn't realise he wasn't meant to be British.

I don't really remember, since I haven't seen the original since it came out. I think they had an image of him from him army days though, that may shed some light on it.

Does Statham have an "American" accent? I just assumed he's played a Brit in everything he's ever done, or has he joined the Sean Connery/Liam Neeson/Sean Bean this-is-just-the-way-they-talk-deal-with-it club.

I'll need to check it out when I get home as its bugging me now, but he was definitely trying to put on some kind of accent in the original Transporter (and possibly the second one) as it is frequently at the top of various "worst movie accents ever" lists. I tried finding a clip on youtube, but all of them are from the 3rd one which I haven't seen, but he just has his regular accent in that so either he just forgot to do it or they realised it was diabolical and retconned it.

The trailer is on youtube. He does sound a bit different, but it understandably doesn't have that much dialogue in it. It does do its job though, now I want to go rewatch the entire film.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0poXFSvX0_4

I just watched it, and in the picture you can't really see what he is wearing as he is sitting in the cockpit of a helicopter (civilian by the look of it). However, with it there is also a set of US Woodland BDUs with a UN patch, and a bronze star in a box, so yeah he is definitely meant to be an American.

American remake of District B13, because Americans are embarrassingly resistant to reading subtitles. (And it appears that David Belle has accepted his limitations as an actor.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CzcsN4k9FM#t=44

Subtitles can distract from what's happening on screen and vice versa, though. I watched Chanbara Beauty: The Movie - Vortex on Netflix last month and had this problem constantly throughout it.

That's a lot of punctuation in one title.

As an Anime Otaku, I've grown accustomed to reading subtitles from Anime that hasn't gotten an English dub yet. I do eventually watch it in English to compare differences in the languages, but to me, getting the show right now is better.