Author: Craig

• I would suggest something big on US soil for the Expendables’ mission. Go easy on the wisecracks and humor.

• Olympus Has Fallen opened this weekend with over $30 million in receipts and an A- CinemaScore.  Audiences will still show up for action movies.

• Expendables members need to die.  I love the characters, but let’s lose some on to shock the audience and raise the stakes.

• Perhaps the team accepts a mission from Bruce Willis’ character.  Since the CIA can’t operate on US soil, he brings in the Expendables to take down a home-grown terrorist group.  Although way outgunned the Expendables accomplish their goal. Unfortunately several of the Expendables are killed during the mission.

• Perhaps even have Couture’s character killed after the Expendables have stopped the terrorists.  The terrorists know they can’t obtain their goal, so as payback to the Expendables they torture and kill Couture (perhaps Barney and the remaining Expendables are watching on live video feed).  Once they kill Couture the terrorists make their getaway.  Barney and the remaining team members call in new recruits and go after the terrorists.

• This would show the Expendables are expendable.  It would also show how good they are since they accomplish their mission against greater odds.  This set-up would start the movie with a bang and give reason to bring in the young guns.  It would also make the second part of the movie’s mission very personal.

On March 14, 2013, Flickering Myth posted a piece which took a look at The Expendables 3: Where Stallone Could / Should Take the Third Installment.  Here are a few quotes…

• The key thing for the next film isn’t just about the next action icons who get cast. First and foremost is the quality of the film…the third film must work, not just as a piece of stunt casting, and a gimmick laden homage, but as a piece of film.

• Predator, taking the alien aspects out, was the perfect template for an Expendables movie to be. The toughest of the tough, taking out the trash. Something simple, yet made with brilliant efficiency and wonderful clarity in its action.

• There are plenty of potential directors out there…  John Woo has thrown his hat into the ring…   there’s a feeling, a bit like the Mission: Impossible franchise, that a different director for each film is the way to go…  Shane Black would be a great choice, to not only direct but script as well. After all, if The Expendables unites the crème de la crème of action stars, why not add one of the best action screenwriters.

• Many rumours have already circulated. Nicolas Cage has been mentioned consistently, as has Jackie Chan. A popular choice amongst fans (and even current cast) is Wesley Snipes. All three would add a great deal. I’m not a Cage fan by any stretch, but his manic style could provide entertainment and enliven a potentially forgettable side character. I can see him as a crazy government agent perhaps. Chan would be brilliant.

• Wesley Snipes could be an ideal villain.

• This is a potential sticking point. It’s the young cast members. Firstly it goes against what the films represent and why people watch them. It also seems in some part, a possible way to gradually let the old dogs go out into pasture and let the fresh blood take over.

• Also for many, another group remains largely untapped from the first two film, and that is from the plethora of 80’s/90’s video action stars who could make appearances… such as Don ‘The Dragon’ Wilson, Cynthia Rothrock, Mark Dacascos, Olivier Gruner, Lorenzo Lamas and more… like Rutger Hauer, Christopher Lambert and Gary Busey (I could go on even more).

• One thing that needs addressing is a lack of expendability from The Expendables. There needs to be some culling to offer some dramatic impact and at least some semblance of vulnerability… Then there’s Dolph. Gunnar went from crazy and unbalanced in the first to a comical Frankenstein’s monster in the second. In both films Lundgren is a scene stealer, but for the third things should take a darker turn again. Gunner is a character who was written to die. He’s destined to burn out in style. Dolph is awesome and I enjoyed his performance in the second but logic dictate he should have died in the first film as originally intended. This time around Gunnar has to explode out in a blaze of glory.

I agree with everything quoted in this piece and most everything in Tom Jolliffe’s article.