A third Expendables was, obviously, a certainty after the first two films did so well at the box-office. As soon as the sequel's credits rolled, fans were speculating on who might join the gang for the next 'mission' with everyone from Steven Seagal to Mel Gibson being thrown into the potential frame. But we're now getting some slightly firmer details about what's planned. Though they aren't quite a done deal there's firm news that Nicolas Cage, Jackie Chan, Milla Jovovich and Wesley Snipes ARE all likely to be seen, with Lionsgate confirming that all of those actors are in 'advanced negotiations' to join the project. There's no definitive news on Seagal, though that continues to be a rumour, especially with Stallone's own twitter feed confirming that the two have talked about the project recently. ("Just talked to STEVEN S. in Moscow ...Sounds great and says he wants to be in EX3, if the part fits..." he tweeted in mid-May). Equally, Donnie Yen recently confirmed to us he's been approached for the original sequel but had ultimately passed, but would always consider a role in any further films if he liked the script.
The Cage 'confirmation' comes after much speculation earlier in the year - partly fuelled by fake news reports and also Stallone's own musings on the project's potential cast-list - that Cage had already signed - he hadn't. There was similar confusion regarding Snipes, who is now back making movies after serving time for tax evasion - his latest film, Gallow-walkers is out later this year. The Jovovich rumour is more left-field. Though the actress is more than able to hold ehr own in the genre - well known for action films including the Resident Evil series - she's a good twenty years below the average age of the rest of the Expendables cast and was considered been a prime contender for the much-discussed 'Expendabelles' project.
We don't know much about the storyline for the third film - though, let's be honest:' veteran action-cinema good guys band together to kick the butts of veteran action-cinema bad guys...' sounds fairly likely - but some of Stallone's pther Tweets suggegst he's been very impressed by The Raid and might be intent on looking in that direction for further casting or plot-points. Personally, as long as the hard men of cinema are willing to poke fun at their reputations, we'd quite like to see Clint Eastwood make an appearance, but maybe that's more of a fourth-date experience, expecially with the veteran actor/director's workload.
The Expendables 'threequel' looks set to start filming in August for a 2014 release.
