The Transporter Movie

About The Transporter Movie

The Transporter is a 2002 French action film directed by Louis Leterrier and Corey Yuen. Written by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kaman.

The action film stars Jason Statham, as Frank Martin, a secretive driver for hire. A mercenary "transporter" who will deliver anything, anywhere. No questions asked – for the right price.

The Transporter is based on the BMW film series, The Hire.

Matt Schulze co-stars in the movie as "Wallstreet/Darren Bettencourt".

Filmed in Paris and the South of France in 2001

Production Start Date: October 1, 2001

Days of location filming: 87

Premier Date: October 02, 2002 (Mann Village Theatre- Westwood, CA)

Production Budget: $21,000,000

Printed Fil Formt: Fuji 35mm Anamorphic F-CP 3519D

Sound Mix: DTS-ES / Dolby Digital EX

Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1

Camera: Panavision Camera and Lenses

Total Run Time: 92 Minutes

Release Date: October 2002

MPAA Rating (PG-13)

Distribution: 20th Century Fox

Production Company: EuropaCorp /TF1 Films/Current Entertainment

The Transporter film was translated into several languages and released in over 35 Countries.

See below for the foreign translated film titles -

Le Transporteur - France
Carga Explosiva - Brazil
El transportador - Latin America
Перевозчик - Russia
Tasiyici - Turkey
Nguoi Van Chuyen - Vietnam
Wan ming kuai di - China
Correio de Risco - Portugal
A szállító - Hungary
Kurýr - Czech Republic

Frank Martin (Jason Statham) in a scene from the movie filmed on a set "Frank's house" near Cassis, France. The set was constructed right on the mediteranian sea on a popular vista view point near Port Miou in Cassis, France.

The actual property is owned by a French restaurant, La Presqu'île. The restaurant owners rented the property to the producers and the set was built in 3 about three weeks. The house was not blown up as shown in the movie. All of flames and expolsions seen in the movie were added in post production by a special effects company (Pierre Blain / Eclair Numérique Company).

Jason Statham and Shu Qi at the premier of The Transporter in Westwood Village, CA

Great Review of The Transporter movie -

"It's junk with a capital J. The sooner you realize that, the more quickly you can settle down to enjoying it."

Eric Harrison, of the Houston Chronicle

Follow Eric Harrison on Twitter

Click The Logo

Wallstreet (Matt Schulze). These scenes (Wallstreet's House) were filmed at the Chateau des Fayeres mansion located in Cannes, France. The director (Louis Leterrier) allowed Matt to set up most of these mansion scenes. Matt improvised and developed a lot of what we see in this part of the movie (the pool area, the car approach, running up the stairs and the various interactions with Jason Statham. He also came up with the line, "...I like him". Most of these scenes were shot on Matt's first day on the job. When interviewed, Matt stated that his goal on this movie was to develop the character and make it interesting...."not just read some lines....and initially Jason had some problems with my style, but Louis the director gave me some range to develop the character....and what you see on screen is the character come alive. Wallstreet was this raven kinda guy in a bad suit with a bad haircut and a real sick aura that you could see and feel. They cut a lot of my scenes out of the movie, some real great scenes...for that reason I've never really watched the movie from start to finish......outside of the premier. I was disappointed that so many of these scenes would be lost forever. I think I brought some Orson Wells to that character".

The Hire Series (by BMW Films, Ltd.)

The BMW film series, The Hire was a series of eight short films (averaging about 6-10 minutes each) produced for the internet (download) in 2001 and 2002. A form of branded content. All eight films featured popular filmmakers from across the globe, starred Clive Owen and highlighted the performance aspects of various BMW automobiles.

The plots of each of the films differ, but one constant remains....Clive Owen plays "The Driver", a man who goes from place to place (in presumably rented BMW automobiles), getting hired by various people to be a sort of transport for their vital needs.

At the time, BMW had huge success with this film series and delivered the films via the BMW Films website. Over 2 million people registired at the site to view the first release. BMW also produced a limited number of DVD's to be sold through BMW dealers and the website.

In 2000 and 2001 a screenplay was written (The Transporter) by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen that appears to be very much adapted from the BMW film series "The Hire". The actual details of this connection to the BMW produced "The Hire" film series is not widely known. However; some sources connected to the production of The Transporter movie have confirmed that the connection exists and that BMW viewed The Transporter as an extension of "The Hire" film series and a potential huge product placement platform. Luc Besson was influenced by The Hire series and The Transporter screenplay was comissioned.

Clive Owen - "The Driver"

The Hire Film Series -

On October 21, 2005, BMW stopped distribution of The Hire on DVD and removed all eight films from the BMW Films website just four years after the first film debuted. The series was abandoned, reportedly because the project had become too expensive to produce. BMW's Vice President of Marketing James McDowell, originator of the BMW Films project, left BMW to become the VP of sales and marketing for BMW's "Mini USA" division. The film series had been downloaded over 100 million times in 4 years!

Note: In 2007 Matt Schulze developed a film called "The Acquirer". He filmed, directed and starred in the production that was filmed in Paris, France. It was shot as a short film (40 minutes) and was to be an ongoing series as The Hire was. The Acquirer was also delivered via the web at www.cinsay.com to those who registirred at the site. See "The Acquirer" tab on this site for more information.

The Hire film(s) can be seen on YouTube and the compilation DVD is available frequently on eBay. The Acquirer movie is not available from any source at this time, but we expect to see it available at some point in the future (iTunes, Amazon, or even the Cinsay site).

Clive Owen (the Hire) would eventually go on to work with both Jason Statham and Steven Chasman (Producer - The Transporter) in the 2011 film, Killer Elite. See below.