John Travolta & Chuck Norris Wanted For THE EXPENDABLES 2!
Will the 'rent a nuts Hollywood villain' Travolta and 80's B-movie cheese superstar Norris appear in Stallone's sequel to his homoerotic and absurd actioner?
Sadly the most exciting aspect of The Expendables franchise, well at least we can say it was with the first movie anyway, is the casting process. We ate up every minute of Sylvester Stallone's original recruitment for his homage to 80's Canon Home video fare but alas the movie we had in our heads for what a Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Mickey Rourke, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Eric Roberts, Stone Cold Steve Austin and Bruce Willis film might look like, well he couldn't match it. Maybe it was just something he would never be able to live-up too. With a new director in place for The Expendables 2 in the form of Con Air and The Mechanic hack Simon West, a hiring that considerably lowers our expectation levels for the sequel (not that they were high in the first place), we would expect this new round of casting to similarly be the best part of the film. In an interview out in Bulgaria (via Collider) the CEO of NU Boyana studios (where The Expendables 2 will be shot) David Varod has revealed that Stallone has his eyes on 'rent a nuts Hollywood villain' John Travolta and 80's B-movie cheese superstar Chuck Norris to appear in the sequel. Both we could easily imagine being on Stallone's hitlist for this and they certainly have enough films on their CV to justify their place in amongst the company of these action legends. According to Varod, who surprisingly didn't name-drop Jean Claude Van Damme despite heavy rumours he is also lined up for the sequel, despite turning down the original film, he does say all the folks we heard previously were returning will be back but somewhat curiously leaves off Jet Li's name. Has he declined the opportunity to comeback or is it just an oversight? Let's hope it was because his fight with Dolph Lundgren was one of the best parts of the original film; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NTtowJW67o Based on a script by David Agosto and Ken Kaufman The Expendables 2 has an August 17, 2012 release date and I would imagine we'll hear the final cast locked down next month. In the mean time we previously blogged about our 8 choices for who Stallone could recruit for The Expendables sequel which incidentally included both Van Damme and Norris... but we admit that Travolta was an oversight.