The last time we had good word on The Expendables 2, Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger had been confirmed for meaty roles alongside returning star Sylvester Stallone and presumably returning actors Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, Mickey Rourke, Terry Crews and Jet Li.
Donnie Yen, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Chuck Norris and John Travolta have all been rumored as well, with one report seeming to confirm the participation of classic ass-kickers Norris and Van Damme. (And Travola, too, though he’s less of an ass-kicker.) Now we’ve got word, straight from Stallone, that Norris, Van Damme are indeed in the film, and a Nicolas Cage and John Travolta will show up if things can be worked out. Read More »
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Briefly: There has been a crazy amount of speculation about the cast of The Expendables 2, which will shoot soon. Given that the original film isn’t exactly beloved, that speculation goes to prove that the concept of putting aging action stars together into a ‘one last mission’-type picture is enough to ignite significant public interest.
We still don’t know what new talents might be joining the sequel, but Deadline reports that Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis have now closed deals to take substantial roles in the film. Both had parts in the original, but neither amounted to more than a cameo. Simon West will direct the sequel in October, and Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, Mickey Rourke, Terry Crews and Jet Li are all likely to return alongside Sylvester Stallone. Moviehole reported over the weekend that Jean-Claude Van Damme, Chuck Norris, and Scott Adkins are all confirmed, based on a leaked cast list, but those names are not confirmed at this point. Donnie Yen, also rumored, is yet to be confirmed as well.
Here’s something that’ll get me into the theater for The Expendables 2 right quick, if it pans out: Donnie Yen, one of the current champion fighters on film, has been offered a role in The Expendables 2. That’s according to Twitch, which says that producer Avi Lerner offered Yen a “tailor-made” role in the film, which should shoot in October. Yen’s own people confirmed the offer, but didn’t give any indication of whether he’s likely to take it. Read More »
Briefly: I know there are people who really like the films of Simon West (Con Air, Tomb Raider, The Mechanic) and I expect that audience will be thrilled that he is directing the sequel to The Expendables. Will he do a better job than Sylvester Stallone did with the original? Hard to say; two out of Sly’s last three films have been either genuinely good (Rocky Balboa) or a lot of fun (Rambo) so he’s probably got another good one in him. But The Expendables, a purely by the numbers exercise, sure wasn’t it.
So let Simon West have a crack at the sequel that will reunite Sly, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Mickey Rourke, Terry Crews and possibly Bruce Willis, with new participants very likely. (There will probably be a new female lead, playing the daughter of Mickey Rourke’s character.) David Agosto and Ken Kaufman are writing this one, and I’m hoping they’ve come up with material to really match the testosterone level of the cast. The Expendables 2 will release on August 17, 2012. [Deadline]
Having spent formative years watching films starring Sylvester Stallone, Dolph Lundgren, Bruce Willis and more, there’s something a bit awe-inspiring about looking up at a table packed with all those guys. I’m not talking about anything like hero worship. But when you can stare straight at a bunch of performers who have managed to carve out and maintain a very specific type of career, it’s an impressive thing.
Stallone assembled this crew for The Expendables, and they hit the San Diego Comic Con en masse to promote the film. No shocking news came out of their panel, and the footage was very much in line with what we’ve seen from the film. But the conversation was fun for action movie lovers. And hell, watching an entire audience grow chest hair simply by virtue of proximity to this collection of men is quite a thing to behold. Read More »
Lionsgate has just released what I might call an outrageously confident trailer for Sylvester Stallone‘s new film The Expendables.
Why confident? Because one of the selling points for the film has been that it unites not just all the guys in the primary cast — Stallone, Statham, Li, Rourke, and many more — but that it finally puts the ’80s action movie trifecta of Stallone, Willis and Schwarzenegger in the same film. And there’s their scene, right in the trailer. Which means the rest of the movie must be much more awesome, right? Because otherwise all the fans could just watch this clip and be done.
Decide for yourself after the break. Read More »
After much speculation, Terry Crews told MTV that Arnold Schwarzenegger will indeed be doing a cameo in Terminator Salvation. “That’s it,” he said. “And so am I.” Who knows if Crews actually knows what he’s talking about, as the actor admits that he doesn’t know what capacity Arnold is featured as the production only distributed pages of the film’s screenplay to the relevant players. It’s very possible that Crews just heard about the initial plans to include Arnold in the film.
Also, our friends at DVD Forum have sent us this concept art (seen above) for the big robot you’ve seen in the trailers, which is called The Harvester. Click on over the the DVD forum for the high resolution version of the art.
A few days ago when Forest Whitaker was replaced by a rapper, I stopped caring about The Expendables. Even though he’s been papercut twice (or something), 50 Cent is just too much the chump to be cast in this PG-13 movie that’s ostensibly a 24-pack of ’80s, ’90s and ’00s action staples. And however one characterizes co-star Eric Roberts when sober. Sylvester Stallone pays close attention to the Web, so he quickly ditched Fiddy for Terry Crews, a smart decision, though subbing in The Thing’s Keith David or Mike Tyson (The Hangover) would have ignited big geek fireworks.
But still the question remained: where the hell was Kurt Russell, the guy who made Steven Seagal his marquee bitch (Executive Decision) and once referred to Stallone as “Armani with a badge”? Slashfilm previously requested Russell’s participation, and today Stallone called him out on, yep, Stallone Zone…
I know that many people on the site have asked for Kurt Russell. I asked for him too. Actually, I was taken aback when asked to put the request in a letter and send it to his agent. Subsequently, I was called back by the agent several days later after refusing to send a letter and he said Kurt Russell is not interested in ‘ensemble acting’ at this time.
So, People, I came, I saw, I failed.
Best,
Sly
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