Former model in gear for "Death Race" remake

(Reuters)
Updated: 2007-08-21 14:16

LOS ANGELES - Former model Natalie Martinez is negotiations to star as the romantic lead opposite Jason Statham in "Death Race," a remake of the Roger Corman cult classic.

"Death Race" sees a future America in which prison inmates are forced to brutally compete in an enclosed arena. Statham is starring as a prisoner who, with only weeks to go before his release, is coerced into being a driver in a road rally to the death and becomes a crowd favorite called Frankenstein.

Martinez will play Case, a woman who is assigned to be Statham's navigator and ends up assisting him in his plan to escape the prison. She joins a cast that includes Joan Allen, Ian McShane and Tyrese Gibson.

Shooting is scheduled to start this month in Montreal. Paul W.S. Anderson is directing for Universal Pictures.

Martinez, a former model for Jennifer Lopez's clothing line who jumped into acting as one of the stars of MyNetworkTV's "Fashion House" and "Saints & Sinners."