Writer/director/actor Sylvester Stallone brings in a veritable who's who of movie tough guys to help him turn back the clock on the Hollywood action movie in The Expendables, including Bruce Willis, Mickey Rourke, Jet Li, Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, Terry Crews, and even the "Governator" himself, Arnold Schwarzenegger.
"What I wanted to do was just try to do something that is a little different. Today, technically, we're incredibly gifted and versatile with CGI, and I wanted to do a film that was more about men, doing things that we did back in the 80s and 90s that were a little more mano a mano – actual, physical stunts. It's also a story that isn't super-gigantic; it's almost a believable story.
"I guess it's kinda like The Dirty Dozen, or one of those films that comes along every once in a while – like The Magnificent Seven – to try to take that old formula and move it into a modern era. We accomplished it; I'm very, very happy with the film.
Stallone admits to getting the title of the movie from a line in Rambo 2, but said that it's really about the nature of the men featured in the film.
"They don't have families, all they have is each other. They're expendable to the rest of the world, but they're not expendable to each other – they're just necessary. So it's a real brotherhood. I think it has a lot of heart for an action film."
The Expendables also features Eric Roberts, Steve Austin, Randy Couture, David Zayas and Brittany Murphy.
opens August 20, 2010!