The hiring of
Simon West to direct
The Expendables 2 makes a lot of sense, I suppose. He's an undeniable hack director, whose films like Con Air and The Mechanic make a lot of noise, are incredibly stupid, cynical, throw way too many dollars on mindless explosions and apart from a knowing B-movie energy, there's few things to really recommend about them. Which is pretty much how
we summed up the 2010 disappointment - The Expendables, so fitting he will helm the sequel.
Deadline say Stallone has chosen West to direct, with filming to shoot this summer - though I'm can't help but feel that will be pushed back with
Stallone and director Walter Hill (who should have made the Expendables 2 really) readying on a new actioner which films later this month. With an astonishing and legendary cast, we had expected The Expendables to be one of 2010's most enjoyable hits but because of Stallone's strange decision not to go as balls-to-the-wall as he could have, the film was just dumb and stupid, instead of being dumb, stupid but entertaining and fun. The project clearly got away from the 65 year old Stallone and we think he has made the right decision to step aside behind-the-camera but West is no more talented with the camera than he is, sadly. Based on a script by
David Agosto and
Ken Kaufman - The Expendables 2 has an
August 17, 2012 release date and looks likely to reunite Stallone with
Jason Statham,
Jet Li, Mickey Rourke,
Terry Crews and depending on his schedule
Bruce Willis (who would play the villain) with lots of new additions expected. We previously blogged about our
8 choices for who Stallone could recruit for The Expendables sequel.