Sylvester Stallone Has A Pitch For 'The Expendables 2', Talks About His Edgar Allen Poe Biopic

We've heard about possible sequels to Sylvester Stallone's The Expendables for over a year. Last July, producer Avi Lerner said, "We already have got some ideas about Expendables No. 2, No. 3. Definitely, it's a franchise movie."

The film is opening this week, and if the rather expensive picture ($80m without factoring in prints and advertising) does well — not a given thanks to the R rating and competition from films like Scott Pilgrim — then Stallone is already developing an idea that would power a sequel. Providing financing comes through, that is.

The LA Times talked to Stallone, who said:

If this does perform, I think it will open a little more liquidity in funding the sequel...I have an idea ready to go. People think doing a sequel is easy, but it's not because you need the element of surprise. I'm going to try to do something that's quite radical.

Talk amongst yourselves about what 'radical' might be in this context. A prequel, perhaps, with a bunch of young up and comers playing the merc crew seen in the first film? That would be along the lines of the Rambo prequel Stallone mentioned a couple weeks back.

And then there's a comment or two about the biopic of Edgar Allen Poe that Stallone has wanted to make for years. Robert Downey, Jr. was long attached, and has talked about wanting to do the film, but his schedule is packed. Stallone talked about the film to MTV, referencing the fact that Downey might not be able to do the film:

It has be like Downey, I designed it for Downey...Perhaps I could re-work the script. [Maybe] Johnny Depp. It needs a very special actor like that.

Which sounds ambitious — Depp's schedule, for example, is probably more crowded than Downey's. But at least Stallone sounds realistic about the film's commercial prospects. I think he's only half joking here:

I will direct it, but it's never gonna live up to the hype...No matter what I do it's going to bomb, totally. Totally! When you've been talking about something for 30 years, it's impossible [to live up to those expectations].