Sniper Truck 3: Oversized Load (film)

Sniper Truck 3: Oversized Load is a 2004 action movie and the third film in the Sniper Truck film series. It was directed by Isaac Florentine.

The film was produced independently, by a private investor who snapped up the rights without the knowledge of original producers / creators Brendan M. Leonard and Séance Simonsen. The film was delayed for several years due to a lawsuit by Leonard and Simonsen, which ended with the rights being returned to the duo. The film was then re-edited and released direct-to-DVD. Despite the fact that it is theoretically an "official" sequel, the events of the film are not considered canon.

Synopsis
Sniper Truck 3 centers on the character of John Truck, Jr. (Sticky Fingaz), a courier in the greater D.C. area. Long estranged from his father, John Sr., John has only heard about the events of the previous two Sniper Truck films through the media.

During one of his routine deliveries, John Jr. is surprised to discover a packaged addressed to him. The contents of the package are an explosive that nearly kills John Jr., and destroys his shipping truck and its contents. John Jr. hooks up with James Armor (Kimbo Slice), who informs him that the package is from a notorious Russian mobster named Sergei Grudge (Rade Serbedzija). Some of the hits done by John Sr. years earlier caused a great deal of legal and personal trouble for Sergei, who has a deep, permanent scare over the right side of his face as a result. He has decided to get revenge on the family by tormenting John Jr., as well as launching plans to mobilize an army of defunct Sniper Trucks in a military warehouse and take over the capitol.

John Jr. enlists the help of his friend and co-worker José Cuáquero (Luis Guzmán) to get to Washington D.C. There, the pair get the attention of a CIA Agent named Asia Lienket (Bai Ling). She helps John Jr. reunite with his father, who gives him crucial information to help stop Sergei.

Development
Despite the financial success of Sniper Truck 2: Viva Las Vegas, Wesley Snipes was reluctant to return to the franchise. While producers on both sides attempted to convince Snipes, spin-offs such as the short-lived Canadian live-action TV-series "Sniper Truck 2000" and the popular DiC "Team Trucks" animated series were produced. When Snipes finally turned the project down, producer Séance Simonsen left the series and founded New Carolco Pictures.

In 1998, Leonard met with  Simonsen to discuss Truck, the fifth book,  as potential foundation for a reboot of the series. Simonsen optioned the book, and the pair announced film plans shortly thereafter, but no further updates on the status of the project occurred for several years.

Vincent D'Onofrio was briefly cast as the film's villain. Stills featuring D'Onofrio in costume are among the rarest collectibles for Sniper Truck fans.

Legal battles
In 1999, in the wake of Golan-Globus' bankruptcy, the rights to the Sniper Truck film series were auctioned off to a private investor named J.B. Kim, who raised the money for a third Sniper Truck film from independent sources. Production began December 1999 in Bulgaria, with Isaac Florentine directing, and continued for three weeks before Leonard and Simonsen found out about the project. By the time filming was completed (on track for a mid-2000 release), the pair had filed an injunction against Kim, arguing that the rights to the character and the series should have reverted to Leonard after Golan-Globus' dissolution.

After a trial that lasted six months, a judge ruled in favor of Leonard and Simonsen, reverting rights to the character and series to Leonard, and giving the pair control of the finished film. The film was slated for release in late 2001, but the disc was delayed in the wake of September 11th, 2001 thanks to its terrorist-centric storyline.

In 2003, in order to sell the film to Sony for a direct-to-DVD release (solely to fund the development of the reboot), the pair locked down Wesley Snipes for a cameo appearance (replacing a scene in the film with Charles S. Dutton), which was shot in August 2003, more than three years after principal photography was completed. The film was released on DVD and VHS on January 20th, 2004, with Dutton's deleted scene as the sole extra feature. Leonard and Simonsen took their names off the finished product, crediting themselves as "Boone Daniels" and "Jack Alias," respectively.

Reception
Fans of the Sniper Truck series were very harsh on the picture, complaining about Snipes' extremely limited participation and criticizing the lack of fidelity to the series mythology. Many criticized the screenplay, which was obviously written for Snipes in mind as the lead, and hastily changed when the actor was initially uninterested in returning, and the subtitle (added by Leonard and Simonsen) is commonly referred to as a joke about the film's quality.