It’s been almost a decade since the last Expendables movie, and things didn’t go so well for the aging band of action heroes on their third outing.
A pristine copy of the film leaking online weeks ahead of release severely impacted the box office takings, while the decision to water down the previously R-rated franchise into a bloodless PG-13 actioner didn’t go down well with fans, to the extent that Sylvester Stallone admitted it was a mistake in the aftermath.
Some of the gang will be getting back together under the direction of Scott Waugh, with Stallone being joined by Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, and Randy Couture. In a recent interview with PopCulture, Lundgren revealed that The Expendables 4 is going to be the most expensive one yet.
“Well, it’s definitely bigger. I mean, the budget is probably at least twice what the last one was, I think. It’s a special franchise, because a lot of these action franchises today are based on superheroes, and they’re for young viewers. So there’s no blood. Nobody gets killed. People get banished to another universe.
But Expendables is old school. Unfortunately, people get blown up, and shot, and there’s real fights and real stunts. So I think with that type of approach, plus the fact we’ve got… You know, Megan Fox is in it, 50 Cent is in it. Him and I actually have a lot of scenes together. Andy Garcia. There’s some new blood, and I think there’s a certain excitement to it, testosterone-driven excitement that, hopefully, people will want to see.”
The third installment cost an estimated $100 million, so there might be a little exaggeration on Lundgren’s part, when The Expendables as a whole has never brought in enough money from theaters to justify a $200 million price tag.
Then again, heaping nostalgia on top of nostalgia by reviving a property marketed entirely on the elder statesmen of ass-kicking could increase anticipation and hype and justify the alleged exorbitant cost.