For those who like action flicks, The Expendables promises to be one hell of a testosterone-filled ride. Directed by Sylvester Stallone, The Expendables lineup includes action movie veterans Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, Dolph Lundgren and Mickey Rourke along with Jet Li and Jason Statham. The Expendables is scheduled for an August 13, 2010, release.Sylvestor Stallone, who in 2009 did a cameo in Hindi film Kambhakht Ishq, shot to fame with his defining action roles as Rocky Balboa and John Rambo. He has continued to reprise those roles successfully – Rambo 4 was released in 2008 while the final instalment of the Rocky franchise, Rocky Balboa, opened in 2006.
The actor is now readying The Expendables, for which he has co-authored the script.
Sylvestor Stallone is cast as Barney ‘The Schizo’ Ross, leader of a group of mercenaries on a rebel mission in South America. The Expendables opens with Barney Ross and his band rescuing hostages from Somali pirates. After that, the mercenaries head to a South American country. Their mission? To overthrow the bloody dictator who’s running amok. As the mission begins, the group finds itself ensnared in a lethal game of deception – one among them is a traitor.
The Expendables features the big three of action movies of the 1980s- Sylvestor Stallone, Bruce Willis, and Arnold Schwarzenegger – and promises a lot of adrenaline-pumping action.
The Last Action Hero, 63-year-old California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, is making a comeback to the big screen after more than six years in a cameo in The Expendables.
Arnold Schwarzenegger utters a crisp one-liner referring to Sylvester Stallone. “Give this job to my friend here – he loves playing in the jungle,” he drawls in his inimitable style.
Speaking about the shooting schedule of The Expendables, Sylvestor Stallone said it took eight months of planning. On the scene between the three action icons, he said it sets the tone for
the movie.
Bruce Willis plays a tycoon who hires Sylvestor Stallone’s bunch of guys (Jason Statham, Jet Li, mixed-martial-arts champion Randy Couture and former NFL player Terry Crews) — to overthrow a Latin American dictator. Arnold Schwarzenegger plays Stallone’s longtime rival.
Sylvestone Stallone said the film is “the three of us going nose-to-nose, like meeting a fellow athlete in the ring.”
Action stars Steven Seagal and Jean-Claude Van Damme were also reportedly approached, but did not sign up. Steven Seagal had his hands tied with a TV show while Jean-Claude Van
Damme reportedly was not convinced by the character he would play in The Expendables. It’s a pity, for had they joined the crew, this would have been a once-in-a-lifetime casting!
Meanwhile, Sylvestor Stallone has said he’s 99 percent sure he won’t work on another Rambo film and stated that the series ended with the fourth movie.
Stating that he had planned Rambo 5, he said that he realized that another movie was not necessary.
Sylvestor Stallone will also star as the voice of a lion in Kevin James’s comedy The Zookeeper in which animals at a zoo break their code of silence to help their zookeeper win the attention of a woman. The film is slated for a July 2011 release.