TheExpendables Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Dolph Lundgren isn't the first name that springs to mind when you think "chemical engineer," is it? You might be surprised to know that the guy who has made a career out of playing muscular bad dudes in movies has a masters in that field from the University of Sydney, and he was also a Fulbright scholar to MIT. However, he dropped out after two weeks to pursue acting full time, and that's left us with his performances in everything from Rocky IV to The Punisher to Universal Soldier.

He'll also be going toe to toe with Sylvester Stallone once more in The Expendables, but we found him returning to his Universal Soldier roots at Fantastic Fest in Austin with a sneak peek at Universal Soldier: A New Beginning. Read on beyond the break for the full interview, including an homage to Rocky IV that you'll see in onscreen.

James Wallace over at Gordon and the Whale had the cojones to corner Danny Trejo at CineVegas and got some tasty details from the tattooed tough guy.

Trejo confirmed that he is still starring in Robert Rodriguez's Machete as the title character, and that it's going to start filming in just five short weeks. Machete started as one of the fake trailers in Grindhouse, which was, some might say, one of the best parts of the double feature. The other fake trailer rumored to get the full-length treatment, Eli Roth's Thanksgiving, is listed as in development on IMDb, but as the other news from Trejo proves, even IMDb sometimes gets it wrong.

Although IMDb lists Trejo as a rumored cast member of Stallone's next blow-'em-up, The Expendables, Trejo told Wallace "his name was associated with the film for some unknown reason and he was never contacted by Sylvester Stallone or anyone involved with the film." Kind of a bummer -- for them!

Meanwhile, I'm really looking forward to another upcoming Trejo flick, The Haunted World of El Superbeasto, which is Rob Zombie's first animated film. Am I alone here, or what?

Whoever wrote, "Success has many fathers, while failure is an orphan," obviously lived before the Internet was created. Nowadays, we're all too eager to find a fall guy -- either an individual or a group -- on whom failure can be blamed. The most recent example is Terminator Salvation. Our own Jessica Barnes suggested several culprits, including the Internet itself: "Terminator could be a good example of how filmmaking at 'gunpoint' never ends well. It's possible that the leaked ending forced WB's hand to create something different when in fact we should have just let McG do his thing with the original script."

Lane Brown at New York Magazine's Vulture blog takes that idea further, giving odds on four "massively anticipated" movies that will 'have their failure blamed on a director listening to people on the Internet.' Lane lists Jon Favreau's Iron Man 2, Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, Spike Jonze's Where the Wild Things Are, and Sylvester Stallone's The Expendables as the most likely suspects.

We're on a slippery slope here, because as a dedicated movie site written by hard-core film buffs, Cinematical is inclined to obsess over every little item on upcoming movies, freely offering our strong opinions way in advance, often prompting dozens of different opinions from readers. Personally, I see nothing wrong with filmmakers paying attention to what fans are saying. And if they choose to change their movies based on the opinions of an unruly mob of fanboys, that says more about them than it does about the Internet. What do you think? Should Internet fanboys continue to have their say? Or should we all shut up and wait for the movie to come out before saying anything?

Would there be anything more embarrassing than getting yer tuckus handed to you on a plate by Sean "P Diddy" Combs?

Okay yes, there would be, but one would still think that Colm Meaney could hold his own. The dude has traveled extensively through space and even faced Con Air! But with the magic of movies, Diddy gets to beat on Meany for the upcoming comedy Get Him to the Greek, and Just Jared has a slew of images outlining the action, including the one to the right. In the scene, Diddy drags Meany away, beats on him, and then races after stars Russell Brand and Jonah Hill -- who are trying to get to a show at the Greek.

Meanwhile, Sylvester Stallone gets another chance to grimace in a scene from The Expendables. In this new picture, up at AICN, Sly is hanging off of a seaplane, trying to pull himself inside as it takes off and pull off the most impressive pull-up in history. That man has a face for things like this; that snarl was just made for feats of heroism too impressive to be real. It also makes me wonder how Sly would hold up if he faced off against our beloved superheroes. Methinks he could do some real damage on Batman, at the very least.



Between this image and the shot of Eric Roberts getting his taste of Expendables action, I'm actually dying to see this. It's tapping into my goofy action love in much the same way that the GI Joe trailer made me think: Must. See. This. How about you?

The first "official" photos from Sly Stallone's action-packed The Expendables has arrived online (courtesy of AICN), and one features Eric Roberts and Stone Cold Steve Austin flying through the air following an explosion of some sorts. If the words 'Eric Roberts', 'Stone Cold Steve Austin' and 'explosion' don't immediately force you to write the word 'AWESOME' in ALL CAPS (before yelling it out your apartment window for the whole world to hear), then I'm sorry, but there's really no hope for you. Check out all three images in the gallery below, and read one of these posts for more info on the film, which hits theaters on April 23, 2010.



Director Rob Zombie has already wrapped production on Halloween 2 (or H2), even though it feels as if only two weeks have passed since his return to the franchise was announced. Zombie celebrated by releasing an image of the new Michael Myers, stressing that this will be one of many faces Myers shows off in the new film. This comes after word spread that Myers will remain mask-less for 70% of the movie (see set photo evidence below), which would certainly be a huge departure from the original horror franchise. I dunno, I kinda like my slashers in a mask. Remove the mask and, well, they're just another random weirdo ... and I work with enough of those here at Cinematical. What do you think: With the mask or without it? (Click images below to view the new Myers)



More after the jump ...

It's been awhile since we heard anything about Brittany Murphy, but that'll change this week, at least when it comes to a certain "expendable" Twitter feed, because Murphy has just found herself among the rough and tumble boys of The Expendables.

If you're hoping she puts on some fatigues, straps on some semi-automatics, and helps take down that South American dictator ... sorry, but no. According to The Hollywood Reporter, she's playing Mickey Rourke's girlfriend, and probably the only major female role of the film. The girlfriend is a musical lass, and so Murphy will actually perform a musical number at some point in order to break up the testosterone. Perhaps one of the other expendables will fall in love with her in order to remind us that despite hanging in an all-male mercenary unit, they're totally straight. In fact, I'm willing to bet that's precisely what happens.

Singing was what we last saw ... er, heard Murphy doing. You might remember that she was the throaty, popular penguin Elijah Wood had his beady eyes on in Happy Feet. She also has an album to her name titled Faster Pussycat.

So, there you go. A girl in The Expendables who will give them a beautiful memory to carry into the South American jungle along with all their weapons and muscles.

Because we, the intrepid chroniclers of all things Entertainment, will report on absolutely anything that has to do with famous people, there is now footage of Sylvester Stallone falling down.

The video, provided by TMZ, shows Stallone running down a dock toward some pads, then slipping and falling before he hits his mark. The 62-year-old actor's tumble occurred on the set of The Expendables, an action flick that he's directing on location in Costa Rica and Louisiana.

TMZ also broke the recent news that Stallone has scary, over-sculpted abs.

To repeat -- Sylvester Stallone fell down. But he's okay. Feel free to check out 28 photos of this incident over at Coming Soon.

You may now continue with your regularly scheduled blog-reading.

Any group of big macho men needs a bombshell to level the playing field. But who do you get to balance a team of cinema's quintessential toughies?

Sylvester Stallone, Mickey Rourke, Jet Li, Jason Statham, Randy Couture, Dolph Lundgren, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and two of my favorite men -- Eric Roberts and Danny Trejo, are all in The Expendables -- the film that has quickly turned into a display of Hollywood's leading testosterone. And to balance the machismo, TV Guide reports that Sly has grabbed the beautiful Charisma Carpenter.

Stallone must love the ladies of the Whedonverse. First he teamed up with Julie Benz (Buffy and Angel's Darla) for Rambo. Now he's got the other Queen of Joss Whedon's vamp shows, Ms. Cordelia Chase. She'll play Statham's girlfriend, who I'm guessing keeps his bed warm between his expendable gigs as a mercenary.

It's not quite the gig Carpenter fans would hope for, especially in the wake of all those Wonder Woman wishes, but who knows? Maybe the woman with the powerful accessories will get her chance after Carpenter struts her stuff on the big screen. It's about time the actress got a path out of guest spots on television shows.

[via Rope of Silicon]

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By now you may have already heard the news that Arnold Schwarzenegger will return to the big screen in a cameo role as himself in Sylvester Stallone's veteran-heavy action flick The Expendables. AICN broke the news last night, saying Arnie will play Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger -- that he'll be shooting for one day, and the Governor will have ties to Stallone's character, Barney Ross. Additionally, Latino Review adds that Danny Trejo has joined the flick, while AICN notes that Eric Roberts has replaced Ben Kingsley in a cast that already includes Mickey Rourke, Jason Statham, Sandra Bullock, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren and Forest Whitaker. And I'm sorry, but if that retro badass cast can't churn out a fun flick, then I've lost all hope in humanity.

With the news out of the way, let's turn to the topic at hand. Obviously Arnold is itching to get back in front of the camera in some way, shape or form (we still don't know what version of the Governor we'll see in the next Terminator film), but do we, as fans, want to see him return to movies or should the guy stick to politics? Is the Schwarzenegger era over, or is there still room for the guy to make a highly successful flick?

What do you think?

Right on the heels of word that Forest Whitaker was in talks to join The Expendables, Variety reports that Mickey Rourke has signed on. Holy machismo, Batman! The Sylvester Stallone-directed (and written) film will star Sly, Jet Li, and Jason Statham as badass mercenaries (according to the original news) who head to South America to overthrow a dictator, and this latest news adds that both Randy Couture and Dolph Lungdren are also title characters.

Rourke, unfortunately, won't be one of the mercenaries. Instead, he's "an unscrupulous arms dealer who becomes the go-to guy" for the Expendables. Mix all that testosterone with Whitaker possibly playing a CIA liaison for the group, and Ben Kingsley circling the project, and you've got one heck of an unconventional action film -- UFC fighters*, action stars, has-beens, and praised actors. It also means that the dictator is screwed. I'm not sure any man could face these men (as a group) and live.

Now, if only Rourke didn't go and get that darned plastic surgery. He looked much tougher beforehand.

*Corrected thanks to Angry_Robot.