Bruce Willis is “Expendable”

Earlier this week, Bruce Willis confirmed that he will be joining the cast of “The Expendables.”  As you can imagine, this news made waves throughout the web:

Sly Talks Expendables

On July 3, 2009, WAToday.com.au posted a nice article focusing on Sly’s process in bringing “The Expendables” to the big screen.  Here are a few highlights:

  • .. arguably is the toughest cast of brutes put together in a Hollywood film…
  • … Stallone handpicked a who’s who of tough guys…
  • “These guys don’t fit in this world,” Stallone says.
  • “I went to Brazil and got the baddest, toughest MMA fighters. They could snap us like spaghetti. That’s just the extras.”
  • “The biggest alpha dog of course is Sly so he keeps everybody in check…”
  • The Expendables is the most extravagant project of Stallone’s 50-plus film career.

Check out this excellent article by clicking here.

Sly’s in Great Company

AMCtv.com ran a piece on aging action stars saying, “hanging around at the top of your game until your 50s, 60s or even 70s isn’t uncommon”.  The article praises Charles Bronson, Sean Connery, Clint Eastwood, Harrison Ford, Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Samuel L. Jackson.  Here’s what they had to say about Sly:

Sly’s been kicking ass since the ’70s and even made an ill-fated attempt at dramatic acting. In 1997, he packed on the pounds to play a small-town cop dealing with corruption in Cop-Land. Maybe it was a mid-life crisis, but the movie didn’t live up to Sly’s blockbuster standards and Sly went into a nearly decade long slump where his biggest hit was the middling Spy Kids (2001). Luckily, he dove into his golden years wiser and just as strong (literally) and got back to his action roots. With Rocky Balboa (2006) and Rambo (2008), Stallone clearly realized that even as an older gentleman, he’s at his best jacked and beating down young bucks.
Born: 1946
Current Status: Still going strong. Very, very strong.
Senior Fact: We all know Stallone ended the Cold War in Rocky IV (1985), but when Stallone was born, the Cold War had yet to begin.

You can read the full piece here.

Dolph Talks A Lot of “Expendables”

On May 28th, Dolph Lundgren sat down with IGN.com for an exclusive interview.  Dolph talked about directing, “Direct Contact”, the “Universal Soldier” sequel and more.  Here’s some of what he had to say about “The Expendables”:

It’s the biggest movie I’ve worked on. And I realized the other day that I think it’s the biggest movie that Sly’s worked on, too. I don’t think there’s anybody who’s made more big action movies than he has. He has a lot of experience and he’s great to work with as a director because he knows.”

“There’s one scene toward the end of the film where everybody’s there – Mickey Rourke and Stallone and Jet Li and Jason Statham and Randy Couture and Eric Roberts. You see all those chairs lined up, like in those old pictures at MGM where they’d line up all the stars, and I’m just pleased and honored to be one of the group.”

You can read the whole piece here.

Dolph also spoke with MovieWeb.com and when the talk turned to “The Expendables”, he had this to say:

“…it’s a pleasure working with Stallone again. He’s a very experienced guy. You know, I direct myself, so I appreciate his advice because I can pass it on. Few people have more experience than him, a lead in a big action movie. I mean, how many big movies has he done in his career? Maybe 30? Big studio pictures? That was fun, so now that I get to suck up his advice and it’s really fun for me. It’s a pleasure.”

“It’s a really good character for me too. I’m the outcast-of-the-family sort of thing. I go back and forth between the good family and the bad guys, so there’s a lot of great stuff and certainly a lot of action… I get to play both good and bad. It’s a little crazy. He’s a guy with a heart, and Stallone is no friend of his in the movie. He was my old buddy and we end up parting ways, it gets ugly and there’s sort of a surprise. You’ll see.”

To read the full MovieWeb.com interview, click here.

Dolph also spoke about “The Expendables” to JoBlo.com. Here’s a taste:

Stallone wanted to do a kind of DIRTY DOZEN type of picture with a bunch of action guys. So he came up with the idea about this group of mercenaries, they all have problems of various sorts. And Stallone is the leader who put it together… I loved the script…”

“You know what I like about it is there was a real feeling of real people and it’s not superheroes and there is nobody flying though buildings. Nobody is out to save the world. You know, it’s quite down to earth.”

Stallone writes those things very, very well… I think THE EXPENDABLES is one of his better scripts. It’s funny and it’s touching and it’s going to be cool.”

You can read the full JoBlo interview right here.

Sly Now and Then

On May 4, 2009, DailyMail.co.uk posted a piece about Dolph Lundgren that contained the two photos above which favorably compares the shape Sly is in now and over twenty years ago.  You can read the full article here.

Antonio Tarver Sues

Antonio Tarver, who played Mason Dixon in “Rocky Balboa”, has filed a lawsuit against  Rogue Marble Productions [Sly’s company], Columbia Pictures Industries, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Revolution Studios Distribution Co. with the claim that he has not been paid $1.5 million in bonuses owed him.  It is Tarver’s contention that he is owed six bonuses based upon the movie’s gross of a reported $191 million dollars.

Sly’s attorney, Marty Singer, counters that Antonio Tarver is not owed any moneySinger explained to TMZ:

“On the first day of principal photography of ‘Rocky Balboa,’ Antonio Tarver, who had already reached an agreement for his appearance in the movie, refused to appear unless he received a back-end deal. He knew that if the production company did not cave in to his demands and give him a back-end deal, the motion picture would have to be shut down.

As such, Mr. Tarver received notice a few weeks ago that he had engaged in duress, among other claims, and that he had no right to receive any back-end on the motion picture due to his alleged duress.”

For more on this lawsuit check out:

Couture’s “Expendables” Talk

Randy Couture and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira are set to fight each other MMA style on August 29th at UFC 102. The ironic thing is that they both appear in Sly’s “The Expendables” which is currently filming.

Randy Couture recently spoke to Sherdog.com about his experiences working with Sly. Here’s a bit of what he had to say:

“Sly was very intense, but also very in tune with the other actors and what needed to come across in the scenes… Shooting went great.”

You can read the full article here.