Interactive gang territory map and videos posted on District 13: Ultimatum (Banlieue 13 – Ultimatum) website

If you haven’t seen the Luc Besson-produced original District 13, it comes highly recommended. It’s a fast paced, gritty martial arts film, with an Escape from New York story-line, featuring an incredibly visual martial arts style called Parkour. I had the opportunity to get a first hand demonstration of Parkour, by its French stars David Belle and Cyril Raffaelli, and a local Parkour study school, inside Landmark’s Sunshine Cinema on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, when they were doing a promotional tour for the original film. It was amazing, and they were really cool guys. Hopefully Raffaelli and Belle will be doing more martial arts demos for this new release, once it hits U.S. shores.

Here is the synopsis of District 13: Ultimatum:

Two years later in District 13. The government has changed, but not the rest. The wall of isolation – ever higher, greater and beyond – has spread around towns, ghettos and gangs that have proliferated further increased their influence. The traffic is now divided among five ethnic neighborhoods, each headed by a fearsome gang leader. More than ever determined to solve the problem, the secret service voluntarily fires to the powder. Damien, a cop expert in martial arts, and Leito, able to sneak in every corner of the suburbs, make new team. Their goal – save the city from chaos. Their program – muscle and fighting – defying the laws of gravity along the way.

La Femme Nikita director Luc Besson – who’s coming off a very successful producing job with the Bourne-ish Liam Neeson thriller Taken – wrote the screenplay for the sequel, which again stars stars David Belle and Cyril Raffaelli, along with Frans Boyer, Daniel Duval, Milan Ojdanic and Elodie Yung. This time around, Patrick Alessandrin is handling directing duties.

District 13: Ultimatum was released just yesterday in France, and will probably get a limited U.S. release very soon.

CLICK HERE or on the map below, to get an interactive look at the various gangs and their territories in the sequel.

Below is the teaser trailer that was recently released for the film.

You can also CLICK HERE to see a larger version of the teaser trailer.

Visit the daily shooting blog RIGHT HERE.

Visit the film’s Social Network (sort of a French MySpace) RIGHT HERE.

Visit B13: Ultimatum’s main French website HERE.