By Ryan Parsons | Image property of Universal Pictures
The new Death Race is a lot different from the original Death Race 2000. Now it is set in a prison where the warden runs a corrupt racing circuit. Instead of Sylvester Stallone, Machine Gun Joe is now played by Tyrese Gibson.
Tyrese Drives Thru Death Race
"Machine Gun Joe is nuts," Gibson said. "He's just crazy. He's one of those people that kind of look forward to getting out of jail but at the same time, this is like a big playland for him. So he's not in jail because he was singing too high in the choir. Once I have somebody that I can focus on and try to make their life miserable, that's what I did, with Jason's character."
Stallone even gave Gibson his blessing. "I just know that I had some big shoes to fill. I ran into Sylvester Stallone when I did the National Anthem for the Floyd Mayweather fight. I was backstage telling him, like, 'Man, when you see this movie… Man, I represented you well.' He was just like, 'Oh, really?' He was cool with it. I told him, 'Man, I look just like you. I just got a tan.' He was cool with it though."
Death Race
Death Race
Gibson is so happy with Death Race he's already thinking about sequels. "I think whatever wasn't done on the first one, will definitely be happening on the second one because we are really anticipating a sequel. Me and Paul [W.S. Anderson] were just riding over here in my truck watching some clips that are going to be released on Cinemax, et cetera. I was just saying that this film has the formula."
The new ending they shot only weeks before release definitely sets up more adventures. "We shot that two and a half weeks ago. The feedback from the fans and whatever else just wanted to see and wanted to know what ended up happening. We just shot that two and a half weeks ago and they threw it into the film."
All this, and Gibson still hasn't seen the original. "Even with Fast and the Furious, I've never seen the original one. So I purposely didn't see the first one because I didn't want to try and pick up on anything that they did. I just wanted to stay in my zone."
Death Race
Death Race
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