Long before he was confined to Hollywood jail for crimes against cinema with the extricable box office bomb Cutthroat Island, Renny Harlin was one of the hottest directors working in tinsel town. He already had the monster hits Die Hard 2 and The Long Kiss Goodnight under his belt when he start circling his next big project, an adaptation of the World War II-era action comic Sgt Rock put out by DC Comics. Harlin's take was to be scripted by John Milius (Conan The Barbarian, Apocalypse Now), produced by Joel Silver, and the projected cast could have included the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone and Bruce Willis. Yep, there was going to be an Expendables film about twenty years earlier - a time where it was way more appropriate for all those dudes to be running around causing explosions ie before they were old as balls - and it was going to be a comic book movie. Not technically a superhero film, the comic book does exist in the mainstream DC Universe, although the eponymous soldier does seem to have superhuman endurance and strength, surviving large number of gunshot wounds, fragments from hand grenades, exposure to freezing water and other hazards. Which we'd believe from Arnie, to be honest.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
