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Despite the lacklustre reception to the third film (which really should’ve pumped for the hard R-rating rather than going PG-13), we all knew it’d be coming. There were rumours of an Expendables TV series floating around a while back, but now word has emerged they’re not done with the film franchise just yet; as The Expendables 4 is due to begin filming next year.
With funding flooding in from China (where Expendables 3 made $80m – almost half its $200m worldwide box office total), executive producer Steven Paul says The Expendables work in China because they’re “good old-fashioned shoot ’em up entertainment” – sadly making the franchise sound like an overblown Ultimate Force (maybe Ross Kemp could join the next outing?).
So far there’s no mention of a director, cast list (though it’d be reasonable to assume Stallone, Statham, and Lundgren should be back at least), or shooting location (though as it’s being made with an eye to winning over the Chinese market, and being at least partially funded with Chinese money, it’d be wise to expect locations in the East to form at least part of the production), but Variety are reporting it’s set to be the biggest film in the franchise (with a projected budget of over $100m) and will start shooting next year ahead of an unconfirmed 2017 release date.
Matt Wheeldon – @TheMattWheeldon.
Source: Variety.
