Sylvester Stallone's third aging action hero mash-up movie, The Expendables 3, is shooting in Bulgaria right now, so the typical flood of illegal paparazzi snaps are sure to invade the internet soon. But before they do, here are some official details from Lionsgate and Sly himself.
Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Randy Couture, Terry Crews and Arnold Schwarzenegger will return. Conspicuous by their absence are Mickey Rourke, Chuck Norris and, of course, Bruce Willis.
- Wesley Snipes, Antonio Banderas, Mel Gibson and Harrison Ford are the all-star newcomers. Dismiss those Nic Cage and/or Jackie Chan fantasies from your mind except to pray that they appear in The Expendables 4 (if they make The Expendables 4).
- The slightly less all-star names also joining the cast include Kellan "Emmett Cullen in Twilight" Lutz, MMA star Ronda Rousey, welterweight boxing champion Victor Ortiz and 24-year-old young 'un Glen Powell.
- The director of 2010 western Red Hill, Patrick Hughes, is helming the threequel, replacing Expendables 2's Simon West (of **Con Air **fame).
- The writers of Olympus Has Fallen, Creighton Rothenberger and Katrin Benedikt, have written this one with Stallone himself.
And now... the plot. Y'all ready for this? (The following is best read to the sound of Power Station's We Fight For Love, by the way).
"In The Expendables 3, Barney Ross (Stallone), Lee Christmas (Statham) and the rest of the team come face-to-face with Conrad Stonebanks (Gibson), who years ago co-founded The Expendables with Barney. Stonebanks subsequently became a ruthless arms trader and someone who Barney was forced to kill… or so he thought.
"Stonebanks, who eluded death once before, now is making it his mission to end The Expendables, but Barney has other plans. Barney decides that he has to fight old blood with new blood, and brings in a new era of Expendables team members, recruiting individuals who are younger, faster and more tech-savvy [see above]. The latest mission becomes a clash of classic old-school style versus high-tech expertise in the Expendables’ most personal battle yet."
The Expendables 3 will EXPLODULATE all over your cinemas on August 15 next year.