‘The Transporter,’ gay action hero?

Chris Lee writes about film and pop culture for the Los Angeles Times and he sent over this, uh, unexpected take on “Transporter 3,” the action film that opened Wednesday. We may never watch the fire hose scene quite the same way…

Alas, the Transporter is gay no more.

In the trailer for “Transporter 3,” Jason Statham (in character as the tactiturn commando-turned-courier Frank Martin) is very clearly seen making out with sexy costar Natalya Rudakova –- a stunning development for anyone intimately acquainted with the car-chase-crazy, karate-tastic French-financed action franchise.

In 2005, Louis Leterrier, the director of “Transporter 2” (and also credited as “artistic director” of the first “Transporter”) told me he created a gay subtext for the character so as to avoid making a “Steven Seagal kind of movie.”

“If you watch the movie and you know he’s gay, it becomes so much more fun,” Leterrier said then. “It’s so great — the first gay action movie hero!” He continued: “Action fans in general are pretty homophobic. You see these tough guys who say, ‘ “The Transporter,” that’s such a great movie!’ If they only knew they’re really cheering for a new kind of action hero.”

See ‘The Transporter,’ gay action hero?
Los Angeles Times, CA