Mickey Rourke joins THE EXPENDABLES!!
Mickey Rourke played a "broken down piece of meat" in THE WRESTLER and proved he was far from expendable in a role he might well win an Academy Award for if sentimentality plays it's part with the voters. His first cast role since the buzz from THE WRESTLER? Well it's going to be THE EXPENDABLES. Sly Stallone has once again kept to his promise of hiring larger than life personalities for his ensemble war picture and has cast Rourke to play an unscrupulous arms dealer who becomes the go-to guy for a group of mercenaries planning to topple a South American dictator. Variety claim Rourke is repaying a favour to Stallone for bringing him back from the depths of cinematic obscurity when he cast him for GET CARTER in 2000. Rourke was one of the names I kept hoping Tarantino would cast in INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS, hoping he would resurrect his career, but this way back in the days before KILL BILL. Instead it was Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez who gave him the role of Marv which brought Rourke back in a big way. Now Stallone isn't reviving his career. He's just simply utilising it.