Steven Seagal Talks Potential For UNDER SIEGE 3

Word has it that actor Steven Seagal is planning a third installment to the previous success that was the Andrew Davis-directed hostage thriller, Under Siege. The news came in an interview earlier this month with The Big Issue‘s Steven McKenzie, where Seagal mused about (among other things) music, martial arts, and Russia.

Furthermore, in conjunction with his expressed admiration for Russia, the actor also spoke about the possibilities of returning to his roots as the character, former Navy SEAL Casey Ryback who first saw himself taking on mercenaries on a Battleship in the 1992 original, followed by the Geoff Murphy-directed follow-up, Under Siege 2: Dark Territory in 1995 against a money-hungry tech quack armed with a satelite-powered military weapon on a speeding train. The first film did quite excellently at the box office with Seagal at the height of his career, earning nearly five-times its $35 million budget, compared to the sequel which made just a bit less than its predecessor, and obviously didn’t warrant a third outing.

“I think that America and Russia should be great allies and great friends. And can be.” says the actor on discussing the intended plot for the film. “What I want to do is write a movie, which I’ve sorta already done, where Russian special forces and American special forces work together to combat terrorism. The only way for us to prosper as a human race is for us to get along. There are hundreds of millions of people that want that.”.

There aren’t any other details to report about the film except that Steven Seagal wants it to happen. And it probably should, for the fans at least. But to be perfectly and bluntly honest though, it’s going to take a lot more effort in his writing on top of a budget, especially if he wants it on the big screen as opposed to chalking it up as yet another direct-to-DVD contribution much like the majority of his film career after 2002’s Half Past Dead.

Mind you, this is from the same guy who says in the same interview in response to a question about films with big special effects thaf former boxer-turned-actor Liam Neeson “can’t fight,” and “not an action guy at all”, even though many of Neeson’s action roles aren’t glittered with CGI and he still entertain audiences. Not to mention Neeson’s career has yet to fall into DVD obscurity as of this writing. Just sayin.

At any rate, if this is at all a sign of Seagal trying to resurrect his career in addition to starring in Machete (2009), Under Siege 3 needs the right people behind it with the right ideas in mind. Who knows? He might pull a miracle in the same fashion as Van Damme with Universal Soldier: Regeneration, and his audience might grow a little more.

And if it flops? Well, he can always move to Russia and live under the watchful eye of Sarah Palin. You betcha!

Seagal‘s latest film, A Good Man, has a new trailer which you can check out below, and will release (to DVD) on August.

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