Sylvester Stallone’s (Rocky) latest action masterpiece, The Expendables, will be exploding onto U.S. cinema screens in just a matter of days (August the 13th to be precise), and crossing the pond for a U.K. release on August 20th, and even though it still hasn’t been released yet, the film’s writer, director, and star (Stallone) is “contemplating an Expendables sequel.”
Sly remains hopeful that “if The Expendables does perform, it will open a little more liquidity in funding”, as it was notoriously difficult for him to find investors for the current film, despite the massive action names that had agreed to star in it; The Expendables features Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler), Dolph Lundgren (Universal Soldier), and Eric Roberts (Runaway Train), as well as Jason Statham (The Transporter), Jet Li (Unleashed), and ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin (The Condemned), not to mention cameo appearances from action-legends Bruce Willis (Die Hard) and Arnold Schwarzenegger (The Terminator).
Independent financier Avi Lerner eventually stepped in in 2008 and put up the film’s $82 million budget, which was topped up by Lionsgate paying $20 million for the distribution rights, and the movie is currently predicted to top $30 million in ticket sales in it’s opening weekend; being extremely eagerly anticipated by male fans of the 80s style action movies where actors like Stallone and Lundgren made their names.
But despite the extremely positive reactions that The Expendables has received so far, Stallone is still as nervous as he’s ever been before a film’s opening; although takes solos in the fact that he broke his neck during a fight with Austin; “it’s a good omen, I didn’t get a hangnail on the set of Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot.”
He remains reluctant to let any details of a possible sequel slip, because he believes that making a “sequel isn’t easy” and that “you need the element of surprise” to make it work, but has stated that he’s got an idea “ready to go”, and that he plans to do “something quite radical” with it, should the success of the first allow.
Lionsgate will also be watching the opening with wide-eyed hope, as they recently reported a loss of $64 million for the first quarter of the year; which was blamed partly on rising marketing costs and the “underperformance of The Killers”; which CEO Jon Feltheimer believes can be at least in part be recouped with “the opening of The Expendables poised to achieve the year’s financial targets.”
So, with action fans the world over anticipating the release of the greatest action movie to hit cinema screens in over a decade; a film that places Stallone, Schwarzenegger, and Willis in the same scene for the first time in history, and stands to provoke a resurgence in high-octane, CGI limited, fun-filled, action; there’s now another reason to smile; as after the cancellation of the fifth Rambo, an Expendables sequel will surely be even more welcomed than it otherwise would have been; even by Jason Statham, who says that “getting to do another one would be great.”
The Expendables opens in U.S. cinemas on August 13th, and U.K. cinemas on August 20th.
Click here to read our full review of the film.
Or Click here to view the official trailer.
