Imagine Sly as Superman

Craig / / 2010, Unmade Films

On April 21, 2010, Ilya Salkind was interviewed by Tom MacLean for Newsarama,com about the Superman movies.  One of the areas discussed involved the casting of the man of steel. Here’s a taste of who Salkind said was considered:

More well-known actors considered for the part included Sylvester Stallone, who Salkind says was “a little bit difficult to imagine” in the role, as well as James Caan, Burt Reynolds and Robert Redford.

Others given consideration for the role included Salkind’s ex-wife’s dentist, Bruce Jenner, Jon Voight and even Neil Diamond!

It’s an interesting interview and you can read it in its entirety here.

“Victory” Scores Again

Craig / / 2010, Honors, Victory

On April 20, 2010, The Spoiler posted the piece The Spoiler’s 10 Best Movies About Football.  Victory made the cut and here’s what they had to say about it:

Once a Christmas staple, Escape to Victory literally has it all – Sly Stallone playing some kind of John the Baptist figure, preempting the later surge of US goalkeepers into the UK. Britain’s greatest living actor – Michael Caine – putting in the thirteenth or fourteenth best performance of his entire career. And moving turns from Pele, Bobby Moore, and Ossie Ardiles. It’s the old story of prisoners putting one over on the baddies, with the help of Rambo in goal. Uplifting.

You can see the original trailer for Victory and read the entire article by going here.

Charisma Carpenter: Sly & The Expendables

Craig / / 2010, Celebs, Expendables

Charisma Carpenter was interviewed by Jarett Weiselman for The New York Post on April 20, 2010.  Part of the interview focused on her work in The Expendables.  Here’s a bit of what Ms. Carpenter had to say about Sly and The Expendables:

It’s a really fast-paced action movie and I think America is just going to love it. Sly’s kind of a genius. I know that he’s done a lot of work – but this is nothing like that. This isn’t Rambo, it isn’t Rocky. I seriously have so much respect for how many hats he was wearing. He wasn’t just acting and directing, but he was physically throwing himself into it. Every night after filming he’d go to the emergency room to basically have a cut on his hand sewn up, or his ankle broken or strained – he just goes and goes and goes. He really is kind of like Rambo!

You can read the whole interview by clicking here.

Scoring The Expendables

Craig / / 2010, Expendables

On April 19, 2010, The New York Times posted an article titled: Summer Blockbusters Present Musical Challenges.  Although the article focused on the challenges of creating a new musical score for Iron Man 2, there was this interesting tidbit about scoring The Expendables:

“At one of our test screenings, we put a rock song over a big action sequence as an exercise and on the cards it got completely trashed,” notes Brian Tyler, composer of Sylvester Stallone’s upcoming “The Expendables.” “People really hated it and asked why were we trying to make this into a rock video. We replaced it with orchestral music and the numbers for the film shot up and the notes on the music were great.”

You can read the whole article here.

Sly & Barney II

Craig / / 2010, Expendables

While filming Killing Kharma in New Orleans, Michael Rappaport decided to adopt a dog used in one of the scenes.  The dog was on loan from the local animal welfare society.  This marks the second time this an actor has adopted a rescue dog used in filming in the Big Easy.  The first involved Sly Stallone adopting a dog he named “Barney” while filming The Expendables.  We reported on it here and this is what the Rappaport article had to say about Sly:

Last summer, Sylvester Stallone adopted a Catahoula leopard dog while shooting the action film “The Expendables,” which lands in theaters Aug. 13. The name of Stallone’s pup: Barney — a name he shares with Stallone’s character in the film.

You can read the full piece here.

EW Previews “The Expendables”

Craig / / 2010, Expendables

The Entertainment Weekly Summer Movie Preview issue takes a full page look at The Expendables.  Here’s some of what they have to say…

“It [the scene with Sly, Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger] took probably eight months to pull off because of everyone’s schedules,” says Stallone who also directed and co-wrote the $55 million throwback to he-man classics like The Dirty Dozen and The Dogs of War.  “With Arnold especially, we’d plan a date and then there’d be a fire or a budget crisis and he’d have to go back to Sacramento.”

Jason Statham is quoted: “What I like about this story is that Sly doesn’t want characters who are superhuman heroes.”

As for the rating, Stallone promises a hard R.  After all, just look at the cast, he says.  “These guys are born a hard R!”

For Stallone fans, the article on The Expendables will be worth the price of the issue without even taking into account the other 95 summer movies that Entertainment Weekly profiles.  The issue is due to hit newstands next week.

Ray Anthony-Height’s Rocky

Craig / / 2010, Craig's Sly Art, Rocky

I had the good fortune to meet Ray-Anthony Height at MegaCon this year.  I was talking with a con buddy who had a table near where Ray was set up and I saw him knock out one cool sketch after another.  It didn’t take long before I checked to see if Ray would be interested in doing a Stallone sketch.  He was, and created the nice Rocky piece that you see above.

You can see more of Ray-Anthony Height’s art here and here.  And if you’re so inclined, tell him I sent ya!

Searching for Sly Stallone

Craig / / 2010

SZoner, Mike Adnuk’s wife, Sue, came across the puzzle above and said, “I’ll bet SZoners would love it.”  Mike thought so as well and sent it our way.  My guess is they are both right, so here’s a bigger version in case you want to try your hand at it.

Thanks to Mike and Sue for thinking of us.

Herve Attia @ Rambo’s Ranch!

Craig / / 2010, Rambo, Sly Fan

SZoner, Herve Attia sent me the following last night, just in time for this week’s update!

Dear Craig,

I had the opportunity to visit the Rambo ranch. I always asked myself how the ranch looks like from the inside.  It has always been a mystery for the Rambo fans.  Not anymore :).

I met Roger, the owner of the ranch. He had a lot to share about the 2 days filming Sly did back in may 2007.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoZSdP_8kXw

Thank You!
-Herve

Herve – Thanks for sharing your talents again!  It was really neat to see “behind the scenes”, to hear Roger talk about filming and to see your movie magic!