You know, I've seen a lot of 'behind the scenes' photographs over the years, but these latest from Crank 2: High Voltage win the "what the heck is going on here?" award, hands down. The LA Times is now hosting 19 new images from the set of the follow-up to the 2006 action film. In fact, I have to be honest with you: I can't for the life of me figure out why directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor would need a giant foam head of Jason Statham -- but now that it has my interest piqued, it had better be good.

This time around, our favorite hit man Chev Chelios (Statham) has to chase down a Chinese mobster who has stolen his nearly indestructible heart and replaced it with a bum ticker. But that's not all: on top of everything else, Chev has to keep his heart running on jolts of electricity (where's James Bond's dashboard defibrillator when you need it?). Joining in on the fun are Amy Smart (who we saw on set a few months ago in a 'questionable' costume), Dwight Yoakum, Bai Ling, and a cameo from '80s cautionary tale, Corey Haim (and for his sake I hope things went better on the set here than they did on Lost Boys 2).

Crank 2: High Voltage is expected arrive in theaters in 2009 -- maybe by then we'll know what all those big foam heads were about.

While we're still over a month away from what is perhaps the Super Bowl of geekdom, early info on what to expect from this year's San Diego Comic Con has started to leak out. First off, I've been receiving tons of emails over the past couple days as other websites begin to mention this Masters of the Web panel, which, in case you haven't seen, includes Cinematical. Yes, I'm very happy to announce that yours truly will join the dudes from IESB, JoBlo, Dark Horizons, Ain't It Cool News, CHUD, Latino Review, Movie Web, The Movie Blog and Bloody-Disgusting for an in-depth discussion on how to make your own pizza at home! Not quite, but when you get all these folks in the same room, you'll definitely want to watch what happens next.

Wait, there's more! The panel itself will be moderated by directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor (Crank, Pathology), and those in attendance will get to see the first footage from Crank 2 and that Gerard Butler flick, Game. There's also a ridiculous invite-only party being thrown featuring all kinds of celebs, "dancers" and hot internet movie writers, and if you show up to the panel, you'll have a chance to win a ticket to said party as well. Long story short: If you're going to Comic Con, you'll most definitely want to clear your schedule on Thursday, July 24th at 10am for the Masters of the Web panel. Yeah, it's early -- but we're not going to Comic Con to sleep in, we're going to get our geek on. Start early, party late -- that's always our motto.

In addition to the panel, IESB has listed an early and somewhat tentative rundown of what each studio has planned for The Con. I'm seeing names like Watchmen, Terminator: Salvation, The Spirit, Twilight, Underworld 3, Kevin Smith ... and much, much more. God, I feel like I'm seven and going to Disney World. So excited. Stay tuned ...

As Scott told us last October, there's a sequel to Crank on the way. This might seem surprising, considering the ending, but movies can make just about anything happen. This one will somehow take the seemingly finite ending and continue the story without the use of "dream sequences or long-lost twin brothers." Now, months after Jason Statham signed on for more Crank action, we've got the supporting cast for Crank 2: High Voltage. Variety reports that Chev's girlfriend, Amy Smart is back, plus Dwight Yoakam and Efren Ramirez. But that's not all -- Bai Ling has also signed on, along with Clifton Collins Jr., who will play Chev's nemesis.

This time around, "Chelios faces a mobster who has stolen his nearly indestructible heart and replaced it with a battery-powered ticker that requires regular jolts of electricity to keep working." If it's not low heart-rates and poison, it's mechanical hearts and electric jolts. He should ditch Eve and hook up with Gwen from Angel -- a girl with electric hands could come in handy for this action tale. I guess Clifton is the mobster, but there's no word on who Bai Ling will play -- perhaps a butt-kicking henchwoman.

The sequel kicks into production on April 28 in Los Angeles.

Warning: Possible spoilers below.

We at Cinematical have gleefully kept you updated on the status of the promised sequel to Brian Taylor and Mark Neveldine's crazy-ass live-action cartoon Crank. Thanks to what must be one of the most fascinating casting calls of all time, we now have more specifics about what's in store for Jason Statham's apparently invincible Chev Chelios. (If you recall, he ended the first film by plunging a mile from a helicopter and crashing onto the concrete landing on a car. [Thanks to commenter Liam for the correction.])

In addition to the details of how Chev survived the fall, which we already knew (he gets implanted with -- what else? -- an artificial heart which he has to jolt with electricity to keep pumping), The Bad and Ugly has snagged descriptions of a couple characters from the casting call for Crank 2: High Voltage. Among them are "Hu Dong," a 100 year-old Chinese gangster who implants Chev's old heart into himself and is then "lured into Doc Miles' clutches by the seductive Vanilla." I don't know what that means, but it sounds amazing. There's also "Pepper," a stripper who turns up in the back seat of a car that Chev steals and is somehow able to give Chev information about the whereabouts of one of his nemeses. Oh, and unless you're "OKAY WITH NUDITY" -- just like that, in all caps -- don't bother auditioning for "Pepper".

Ordinarily, reading tidbits like that about an upcoming studio release (Lionsgate is footing at least part of the bill) would send me scurrying under my desk to search for my jaw. But in the Taylor/Neveldine universe, which will also soon include the vicious-looking Pathology, it sounds like par for the course. I'm psyched.

Sorry, Jason Statham fans. He's not going to be your "Real American Hero." Statham had been rumored as the likely choice to play Action Man in the upcoming G.I. Joe flick, but Statham insists he has nothing to do with the film. "The old Internet can be quite misleading at times," he tell MTV Movies Blog. "I don't know where that came from." Statham is keeping busy without Joe though, bro. The Bank Job is due out in 2008, and he's currently on the set of Death Race with a surprisingly excellent cast that includes Ian McShane and Joan Allen. That film is being directed by Paul W.S. Anderson (the terrible Soldier and the almost-terrible Alien Vs. Predator). I always wondered why that guy didn't change his name. You'd think years of people being disappointed when he's not Paul Thomas Anderson would get to the guy.

In addition to those projects, the ass-kicking Statham is lining up some sequels that will bring him back to some of his more popular roles. For starters, there's Crank 2, which Statham promises will be "effing ridiculous." "If you thought the first one was crazy, this is ridiculous. It's mad," he says. "I couldn't resist working with those chaps again. It gives me a chance to go wild in the aisles." For more on the Crank sequel, check Scott's report here. And yet another Statham sequel is in the works -- Transporter 3. "I have a massive yearning to do Part 3 with Luc (Besson). I think it will happen (soon)," says Statham. I haven't seen the Transporter films, though I hear great things. I do happen to think Crank is one of the finest pure action films in years. I'm dying for a sequel, if only to see how they make up for the fact that it sure looked like Statham's character -- spoiler warning -- died in the original. Oh, and bring Dwight Yoakam back! Man, I love that guy.

It was last May when we first started hearing rumblings about the possibility of a Crank sequel, but as anyone who's seen the flick can tell you -- the ending doesn't exactly lend itself to follow-up options. Let's just say that our hero Chev Chelios (Jason Statham), riddled with horrible poison, reached a fate that few aside from Bugs Bunny could survive. But that's not stopping writer-directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor from kick-starting that sequel.

According to Empire, this will be a "true" sequel; no dream sequences or long-lost twin brothers will be employed to ignore the first film's freaky finale. Here's what Mr. Neveldine told Empire: "We came up with an idea, we wrote the script, and after the studio read it they couldn't believe that we pulled it off. And of course, the best test was giving it to Jason and Jason turned down every other project so he could do this, start this in the spring of next year. He was so excited, he couldn't believe it!"

Needless to say, Crank 2 will deliver even more high-end movie mayhem: "You have to go twice as hard. So that's what we're going to do. If we're going to live up to the first one with the sequel -- we're taking it WAY past the point of the first one." Production on the second Crank looks to be scheduled for next April. No word yet on if Amy Smart or Dwight Yoakam will be returning, but really ... why wouldn't they?