Today The Expendables 3 lost one of the veteran action stars it's had from the start of the franchise, but the good news is that it looks as though he's being replaced with an equally great Hollywood legend. Sylvester Stallone has announced via Twitter that Bruce Willis, who starred in the first two Expendables movies as the mysterious Mr. Church, will not be back for the third installment of the franchise, but that Han Solo/Indiana Jones himself Harrison Ford has become the latest addition to the ensemble. The screenwriter/star was absolutely elated announcing the news, writing,
Adding a bit of strangeness to the whole proceedings, however, is the Tweet that Stallone sent out just a few minutes after that one:
As you can tell by the time stamp, the second post came only five minutes after the Willis/Ford announcement, and from the looks of the text Stallone didn't even have time to turn off his caps lock. Was there perhaps a fallout between Stallone and Willis? Is the former upset because the latter was asking for too much money for not a lot of work? I sincerely doubt that this will be the last we hear about this situation.
On the other side of the story, we can all be excited about the prospect of Ford signing on to be in The Expendables 3, but you may not want to count your chickens before they hatch. The last time Stallone was this excited to announce a new addition to the ensemble he teased that Mel Gibson was going to play the villain in the film. It turned out that Gibson hasn't hadn't been confirmed for the movie just yet, and we actually still don't know about the status of that deal.
In addition to the inclusion of Ford and Gibson, it's also been said that the sequel will feature new recruits Nicolas Cage, Jackie Chan, Wesley Snipes And Milla Jovovich. There has also been talk saying that the movie will feature a group of young, tech-savvy mercenaries that the Expendables have to face off against (before they unite to defeat a common enemy). It was recently reported that Twilight star Kellan Lutz is in negotiations for one of these roles.
Patrick Hughes, who directed the 2010 Australian-set western Red Hill is directing the sequel and production is expected to start fairly soon. Lionsgate has announced that The Expendables 3 will be in theaters on August 15, 2014.
