Expendables

The Expendables
Directed by	Sylvester Stallone
Produced by	Avi Lerner Kevin King Templeton John Thompson Robert Earl
Written by	Sylvester Stallone
Starring	Sylvester Stallone Jason Statham Jet Li Dolph Lundgren Eric Roberts Mickey Rourke Steve Austin Terry Crews Randy Couture David Zayas Gary Daniels
Music by	Brian Tyler
Studio	Lionsgate
Distributed by	Lionsgate Films (U.S.) California Films (Brazil)
Release date(s)	April 23, 2010 April 23, 2010
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$70 million

The Expendables is an upcoming 2010 action film directed and written by Sylvester Stallone. Filming began on March 28, 2009 in Brazil, New Orleans and Los Angeles and is expected to be released on April 23, 2010. "The Expendables has a seventy million-dollar budget," says Stallone's co-star Dolph Lundgren, "and it's an old-school, kick-ass action movie where people are fighting with knives and shooting at each other." The film pays tribute to the blockbuster action films during the 1980s and early 90s, as the film includes action veterans from those decades (such as Stallone himself, Bruce Willis, Dolph Lundgren, Arnold Schwarzenegger, etc.).

Plot

A team of highly-trained and dangerous mercenaries known as "The Expendables" led by Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone) and consisting of, Lee Christmas (Jason Statham), Bao Thao (Jet Li), Gunnar Jensen (Dolph Lundgren), Hale Ceasar (Terry Crews) and Toll Road (Randy Couture). They are hired by the mysterious Mr. Church to overthrow General Garza (David Zayas), dictator of the island of Corza near Brazil who has caused devastation for over 20 years. Even with the help from an arms dealer, Tool (Mickey Rourke), the challenge won't be as easy as they thought. In their way is crooked CIA agent, Monroe (Eric Roberts), his psychotic bodyguard (Steve Austin), former British expendable (Gary Daniels) and General Garza's personal army.

Production

Production began on March 3, 2009 and filming began on March 28 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and other locations included Mangaratiba, Niteroi, Guanabara Bay, and Parque Lage. Filming ended April 25. Filming continued later on May 11 in Elmwood and Downtown, New Orleans, Louisana which included French Quarter, St. Peters Street, Fort Mccomb, Claiborne Avenue and the Interstate 10 Overpass. Filming officially ended on July 1st, 2009. There will be a pick-up that will have a scene filmed with Arnold Schwarzenegger in Downtown, Los Angeles, California. On June 2nd, West Coast Customs Street Customs have built 3 customized 1955 Ford F100s for Sylvester Stallone for the film. One was built for a crash scene, the second for green screen, and the third for Stallone to keep. The budget for the film was going to be in excess of $100 million, but was lowered to $70 million. The budget drop would cause some expensive action sequences to be cut.

Jean-Claude Van Damme was personally offered a role by Stallone, but turned it down. This reportedly led to Dolph Lundgren being cast instead. The role accepted by Forest Whitaker was originally conceived as a role for Wesley Snipes but later rewritten for Whitaker. Due to a scheduling conflict prior to filming, Forest Whitaker was replaced by Curtis Jackson (aka 50 Cent) for the role of Hale Caesar. Due to negative fan reactions, he was then replaced by former NFL player Terry Crews.

Stallone wanted Sandra Bullock to play the role of Agent Diane Lickson yet Bullock's schedule did not work with the film, and she could not participate.

Ben Kingsley was offered the role of Monroe before Eric Roberts was cast. The role may be combined with that of Agent Will Sands.

The role of the man who hires the Expendables, Mr. Church, has been very difficult to cast. Initially offered to Schwarzenegger, he declined in favor of a smaller cameo in respects to his political career. The role was then offered to Kurt Russell whose agent replied that he was not interested in "Ensemble acting at the moment.", Stallone is looking to find a big action name to cameo as Mr. Church with rumors suggesting that the role has been offered to friend and fellow former Planet Hollywood co-owner Arnie, although he is apparently tied to the filming of A Couple of Dicks. On May 29, 2009, the script under went a few re-writes which ultimately excluded Brittany Murphy's character. Steven Seagal was also asked to play a cameo role, but turned down the offer due to negative connections with the producer Avi Lerner Hispanic actor Danny Trejo was rumoured to play Emmanuel, but on June 15, he revealed that he was not even cast for the role. Instead, he is currently in the works with Robert Rodriguez's Machete. Sandra Bullock was also rumored to have a role in the film, but revealed that she didn't even know about the project. Despite the news, she did express interests in working in another action film and would like to work in the film, it just depended on the story line.

Cast

• Sylvester Stallone as Barney Ross a.k.a. "The Schizo", a long-time veteran Expendable and the leader of the team. He struggles with his social life. The only valuable possession he acquired in his life is his custom pickup truck.
• Jason Statham as Lee Christmas, a British American Expendable second in command and former S.A.S. soldier also an expert at using Close Quarters Combat with knives. Lee, although a tough guy in his work, he struggles in society's atmosphere as he has trouble when dealing with women.
• Mickey Rourke as Tool, an arms dealer and tattoo parlor owner who helps the Expendables and is one of the first and former Expendables from Ross's old team.
• Jet Li as Bao Thao, a Chinese American Expendable who was a former mercenary in China and a master at Hand-to-hand combat Thao also has dreams of having a successful and peaceful future.
• Dolph Lundgren as Gunnar Jensen, a German Expendable who is an expert at Sniping and a war veteran who also has a knack for making strange violent humor. Jensen also shares a hate-love relationship with Ross, his long time friend and doesn't get along with Bao.
• Terry Crews as Hale Caeser, an Expendable and Bao Thao's best friend. He is also a Weapons specialist
• Charisma Carpenter as Lacy, Lee Christmas's fiancee
• Eric Roberts as Monroe, a rogue C.I.A agent who is trying to prevent the Expendables from killing General Garza
• Steve Austin as Dan Paine, a bodyguard for Monroe and a former Marine
• Randy Couture as Toll Road, a long-time Expendable from Ross's old team with Tool and a skilled Demolitions expert. Just like Ross, he's also considered a
• David Zayas as General Garza, the Dictator
• Giselle Itié as Sandra, a young island native woman
• Gary Daniels as The Brit, a former Expendable who is General Garza's main henchman and wants to go to war against the Expendables as revenge for kicking him out of the team
• Lauren Jones as Cheyenne, Tool's girlfriend
• Nick Searcy as Agent Will Sands
• Amin Joseph as the leader of a group of Pirates of Somali that challenge the Expendables
• Arnold Schwarzenegger In a cameo role.
• Bruce Willis in a cameo role
• Senyo Amoaku as the second in command of the Pirates of Somali that challenge The Expendables.
• Ravi Shankar as a cameo role

Music

Brian Tyler has been selected to compose the original musical score for the film. Tyler is popular for his excellent action scores, and also scored Sylvester Stallone's Rambo in 2008, which most likely led to Stallone's decision to choose Tyler to compose another film for him.

Schwarzenegger To Cameo In Stallone’s Expendables

Arnold Schwarzenegger is set to make a cameo appearance in Sly Stallone’s 80s-throwback-actioner THE EXPENDABLES. Add this to the casting of Mickey Rourke and Danny Trejo (the big, scary Mexican dude in everything from CON AIR to GRINDHOUSE), and Stallone finds himself with one of the most anticipated films of the year.

They join the already impressive cast of Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Forest Whitaker, former UFC Champion Randy “The Natural” Couture and Eric Roberts (replacing Ben Kingsley).

Arnie will only be shooting for one day, and will be playing himself. Presumably in politician mode.

The movie follows a group of “expendable” mercenaries (Stallone, Statham and Li) ordered to South America to overthrow a ruthless dictator.

Van Damme was offered a role too, but (stupidly) turned it down. Here’s what he told Total Film -

“Stallone gave me a part in his next movie. But I ask him about the subject, about the story.”
“He said, ‘You’re gonna make lots of money.’ I don’t want to hear that, I want to hear what was my character. He was unable to tell what it’s going to be.”
“[Stallone said:] ‘You know, uh, well, the fighting will be good.’ [So I said:] ‘Sly, what is my character?’ So I didn’t do the movie.”

Hmm.

After enjoying the retro mayhem that was RAMBO I’m pretty amped up for this one.

Source: Rope Of Silicon