I mean, who am I trying to fool? Of course we’re gonna discuss this. We already started, so let’s make it the official exploratory committee. We have been through 2 (two) Expendastallments, we know how it works. Knowing what we know now, who do we want to see in part 3? Any new ideas of who should direct?
Furthermore, there is this producer of THE GREY who is working on what is described as “a female riff on THE EXPENDABLES” – let’s figure out who they should put in that.
For 3XPENDthreeBL3S the challenge is finding actors who fit the bill and are worthy but haven’t done it yet or been involved in lawsuits with the producer (Steven Seagal). I also believe there is an imaginary rule banning anyone who has been in a FAST AND FURIOUS or MACHETE movie – if so that would rule out such worthy cast members as The Rock, Vin Diesel, Sonny Chiba, Gina Carano, Joe Taslim, Steven Seagal, Don Johnson, Mel Gibson and Marko Zaror. And that would explain why Lucas Black didn’t play the sniper.
We’ve heard the producer’s claim that Nic Cage will be in the movie, and that he wants Wesley Snipes when he gets out (July 19, 2013). Those are probly two of my top choices, actually, so I hope they really happen.
Of the big ’80s and ’90s guys, we got Kurt Russell, Carl Weathers, Roddy Piper and Jesse Ventura left. And I’ll throw in Sonny Landham, Bill Duke and Shane Black for the complete PREDATOR team. Am I missing anybody? Otherwise we gotta start dipping into the also-rans that I would be excited to see but that would not have the any-idiot-can-recognize-this-guy-and-his-catchphrase type of star power Stallone prefers: Don “The Dragon” Wilson, Michael Dudikoff, Jeff Speakman, Michael Wincott, Philip Rhee, Christopher Lambert, Sho Kosugi, Billy Blanks.
I would honestly love to see Brian Bosworth. Also Fred Dryer.
I would like to see Al Leong as a henchman who gets killed. And Ernie Reyes Jr.
Schwarzenegger could have a posse of bodybuilder guys: Ralf Moeller, Lou Ferrigno, the Barbarian Brothers.
There are the new blood, of course: Iko Uwais, Tony Jaa, Jeeja Yanin. People who would be completely wasted. Probly shouldn’t do it.
Speaking of which, I still think they should do a section of the movie that takes place in Hong Kong, which would have to feature Chow Yun Fat as a cop, plus other icons of Hong Kong action cinema like Jackie, Sammo, Yuen, Donnie, Gordon, etc.
Of course there are hundreds of MMA guys they could get if they wanted more of those. I think it would be cool if they went for the earlier guys from even before Randy Couture: Dan Severn, Don Frye, Tank Abbot, Ken Shamrock, any of the Gracies.
And an area that they haven’t gotten into at all is blaxploitation. I guess they already had their own (boring) EXPENDABLES super-team with Larry Cohen’s ORIGINAL GANGSTAS, but I still think they deserve some acknowledgment in this series. Fred Williamson, Jim Brown, Richard Roundtree, Jim Kelly.
And get an evil Lance Henriksen in there, for God’s sake. And Bolo.
“The female Expendables.”
This one is much harder. Action has been such a male dominated genre that there just isn’t the pantheon of icons to pull from. I’ve seen articles who list people like Angelina Jolie, Milla Jovovich and Kate Beckinsale. Nothing against those ladies, but it wouldn’t even seem that unusual for them to be in a movie together. That’s not a super-team. You gotta do better.
Alot of people have said Sigourney Weaver and Linda Hamilton. Yeah, I agree. And I insist on Pam Grier. And of course Cynthia Rothrock and Michelle Yeoh. I like the idea of having Carrie Anne Moss in there, just as an acknowledgment of how awesome she was in THE MATRIX. I wonder why she seemed to disappear after the early 2000s? And Lucy Lawless, if for no other reason than to say “LAWLESS” on the poster. (Also because she’s cool.)
For the new generation we need Gina Carano, Zoe Bell, Jeeja Yanin, and Maggie Q. They would probly provide the majority of the asskicking in the movie.
Directors for these movies? Man, it’s too bad Katherine Bigelow probly wouldn’t be into doing either one. She has the skills and the place in cinematic history to be perfect for either one.
Recent discussions here have convinced me that it would be awesome if Soderbergh for some reason wanted to do EXPENDABLES. I wouldn’t have thought of him because he’s so cerebral and not manly, but it’s true that he has many unique talents that would up the ante for this series:
-has already directed three whole movies containing a huge ensemble of mega-stars with egos, so he can handle it
-did a better job of balancing their characters and making them work together as a team of specialists than they did in the EXPENDABLES. Also was the original inspiration for Stallone to do a movie like this.
-knows how to shoot a movie for cheaper than an EXPENDABLES that looks better than an EXPENDABLES
-in HAYWIRE proved he’s a far better director of fight scenes than previous EXPENDABLES directors
-knows Bruce Willis (he was in OCEAN’S 12)
-all kinds of experience shooting movies of all sizes and budgets, independent and studio, in foreign countries, etc.
-one of his trademarks is getting great performances out of actors and non-actors. Made Clooney a movie star, got Julia Roberts an Oscar, got one of Benicio Del Toro’s best performances, made movies based around a porn star, an MMA fighter and a manager of a KFC. I would love to see what he could do with Dolph and Randy Couture.
Too bad Shane Black wouldn’t do it. He was in PREDATOR. Or maybe he’d do it. They should ask.
Like I said in the review, Couture should try to enlist David Mamet. That would be insane. He’s into special ops shit, martial arts, codes of honor, manly dialogue, ensembles. And he seems way out of the league of a movie like this. He could cause some spit takes.
More likely it will follow the pattern of part 2 and use a director who previously worked with Statham. (In fact, probly just Simon West again.) But if that’s the only criteria how about Boaz Yakin, who directed one of his best and most recent, SAFE? Yakin has action credentials as writer of Dolph’s THE PUNISHER and Clint’s THE ROOKIE, but then he kinda lost interest in the genre, so with SAFE he came to it with a good eye for sort of following the traditions but trying to tweak them a little and do things a little different. Strong but slightly odd. I think he’s good.
Let’s get this hashed out so we can let them know who we decided on and they can start scheduling.
August 24th, 2012 at 5:28 pm
Damn, Vern. You took all the good ones. They were threatening Forest Whitaker for the first one, so I say they go ahead and make that happen. He’s no action legend, but he’s cool, and he’s frickin Ghost Dog.
Alan Rickman as part of a terrorist conglomerate.
LL Cool J in a cameo, getting sliced in half in the first scene.
That really super angular looking dude from Cobra and the X-Files as a henchman.
Udo Kier as part of the aforementioned conglomerate.
Sam Elliott as Barney’s old gun-running buddy.
Michael Keaton (since I’ve got Keaton on the brain) as Barney’s old CIA handler gone rogue and sworn enemy of Bruce.