Those of you who have been following movie news for the last month or so likely know that producer Adi Shankar and his 1984 Private Defense Contractors label has been developing a project that is said to be an all female version of The Expendables, gathering together the greatest women action stars of our time in one movie. Already the project has signed on some solid names, including Haywire's Gina Carano and Battlestar Galactica's Katee Sackhoff, but now the project might have a serious problem as some big competition has arisen.
Millennium Films, which produced both The Expendables and The Expendables 2, has put their own female version of The Expendables in motion, titled - no joke - The ExpendaBelles. Deadline reports that the studio has hired Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith, best known for writing the comedy Legally Blonde, to pen the script for the new movie. Just like the other project, the idea is to "hatch a franchise that will be driven by actresses who’ve logged time in action films over the years." In addition to Legally Blonde, Lutz and Smith's other credits include 10 Things I Hate About You, Ella Enchanted, She's The Man, The House Bunny and The Ugly Truth.
Surprisingly the new story doesn't make any mention of Shankar's movie, and I'm wondering how the development of this project will affect that one. Not only will they have to split casts, with some actresses going to one project and others going to the second, but I wonder if Shankar will even be allowed to legally promote his film as "the female version of The Expendables" from now on. There will be a lot of questions going forward.
