In this interview for Simon West's film 'The Mechanic', he talks a little about working with Nic on Con Air and how they have been wanting to team up again since.
No mention of  Con Air 2 though... perhaps this last papragraph I am quoting has been misinterpreted???





While you’ve directed action films before, like Con Air and Tomb Raider, you’ve also dabbled in other genres, like drama with The General’s Daughter and horror with When A Stranger Calls. What draws you back to making action movies?

They’re just a lot of fun to make. When I did Con Air it was the ultimate action movie, Jerry Bruckheimer has all the bells and whistles, and I sort of satiated myself on that, it was like, “I don’t need to do another one for a while” and I really wanted to go into drama. So I did The General’s Daughter, which is very much a drama. And those big movies take so long to make and prep, you find your making a movie every two or three years. And in that time, that’s a lot of time to pass. I started to think, after General’s Daughter, it was a lot of fun doing that stuff. And Tomb Raider was o ffered to me a few times and I turned it down, but after a while you go, “Yeah, that is a lot of fun. I’ll do it again.” And I did it for Tomb Raider. Then, again I was satiated.

So I think it’s just a cycle. It’s a lot of fun, but it’s like going to have fast food after a while. You want to do it every once in a while but you don’t want to have it for every meal. And it’s a lot of fun and it exercises the practical side and the childish side of you, but then you think, “Oh, I should make some serious stuff or stuff that stretches other muscles.” I think it’s just a cycle. I don’t want to make every movie I make an action movie; I’m not obsessed with it. But, like you say, it’s like going to different restaurants. You want to have a different type of food, you want Chinese sometimes, Japanese another, and French. So that’s what it is. So I’m sure I’ll come back to it, but probably the next one will be much more like The Mechanic.

Which one is that?

It’s with Nic Cage, it’s called Medallion. But it’s in this world again. Probably because this film was so manageable, it wasn’t a 120 day shoot, it was like 45 days, and it was great, had a great time, just a couple of good actors and we got to do some action. And it almost didn’t take anything out of me, it was just fun. So I’m ready to do another one just like that. But then that will probably be enough and so the one after that will probably a romantic comedy.

Just to talk about that a bit, Medallion will be your first time working with Nic Cage again since Con Air.

Well that’s the other big attraction. We’ve been trying to work together ever since Con Air. It’s both our favorite films. We’ve been trying to do it four or five times and it never worked out. And then finally we did it and we spoke over Christmas and suddenly we’re doing it again. So it’s very exciting and it will be fun, because we have an old history together.

http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Exclusive-Interview-The-Mechanic-Director-Simon-West-22865.html