Reports have been coming in confirming a few names for Sylvester Stallone’s third installment of his ensemble action film franchise, The Expendables 3. Announcing via Twitter in the past few days, Stallone hints at roles for Jackie Chan and Wesley Snipes, and the return of Mickey Rourke, reprising his role from the previous film.
Stallone tweeted the following:
“Mighty Mickey is back…………”
“Talked to WESLEY today … He can not WAIT to fight to the top again !!!!!!! Over…”
“What’s the plan? Ask Jackie Chan….”
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From L to R: Mickey Rourke, Wesley Snipes and Jackie Chan |
Upon the upcoming release of his long completed Western action horror thriller, Gallowwalker, THE EXPENDABLES 3, will be Snipes’ biggest move yet after since serving three years in prison for tax evasion. Snipes, whose credits include Passenger 57, Rising Sun, The Blade Trilogy and The Art Of War, also starred opposite Stallone as the villain in the 1993 futuristic action smash hit, Demolition Man. Prior to the 2010 release of THE EXPENDABLES, Stallone went toe-to-toe in the 2001 crime thriller, Get Carter, and also briefly shared the screen with Chan and actress/comedianne Whoopi Goldberg in the satirical comedy, An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn.
In addition to the latest casting news, Stallone expressed his hopes for being able to top the unmitigated success of Gareth Evans‘ 2012 urban Silat martial arts cop thriller, The Raid: Redemption (a.k.a. Seruban Maut), tweeting to the public:
“Thinking about Raiding, THE RAID….think about it…”
“We believe we can do better than the RAID, which was an excellent film… Raising the bar…”
“Raising the bar” would mean topping one of the biggest and most highly successful martial arts film properties in the history of action cinema. While there are other films that have exhibited Silat in screenfighting, Evans is the first director as of late to fully illustrate a process of action film story telling and cinematography that artfully displayed a unique martial in a way that truly flushed MANY elements and applications of the style on film through choreography, The Raid: Redemption, and its predecessor, Merantau.
Fight choreographers and stunt coordinators Corey Yuen and Chad Stahelski designed the action sequences for the first film, with Stahelski returning for the second film.
Given that Stallone is still in the casting stages and the film slated to begin in Sofia, Bulgaria this
August, things are still developing. And with the films notably emphasizing its action with MMA stylized fights, throwdowns explosive gun battles, it will be very interesting to see how Stallone plans on “Raiding ‘The Raid'”, and which stunt coordinators will be brought on board to fill the task of it, particularly since Evans’ latest,
Berandal, is nearing next month’s end of filming for its 2014 release.
Austrailian filmmaker Patrick Hughes was last reported to be on deck to helm The Expendables 3, after months of speculation came with either Simon West, John Woo or Mel Gibson being mentioned to direct. Stahelski is currently slated to co-direct MAN OF TAI CHI actor/director Keanu Reeves’ latest action thriller, John Wick, with 8711 Action Design fellow David Leitch.
Jason Statham (Redemption), Dolph Lundgren (Blood Of Redemption) and Jet Li (Badges Of Fury) are among those rumored to return with Stallone and Rourke to reprise their roles, with Indonesian action star Joe Taslim (The Raid: Redemption, Fast And Furious 6) being said to have a role as well.
Chan, meanwhile, is currently promoting his latest Hong Kong action film installment with director
Ding Sheng,
Police Story 2013 (poster seen on the right) which has
scored up to ten distribution deals this week across fifteen countries and is slated to release this December. Chan is
scheduled to appear at Lincoln Center in New York City on June 10 and 11 for the largest Jackie Chan retrospective to be held in North America, hosted by The Film Society Of Lincoln Center and The New York Asian Film Festival where he will accept the Star Asia Lifetime Achievement Award.
Native New Yorker. Been writing for a long time now, and I enjoy what I do. Be nice to me!
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