News concerning Sylvester Stallone’s tough guy ensemble The Expendables continues to make news. Recently 50 Cent was confirmed to be replacing Forest Whitaker as Hale Caesar, but that was quickly rebuffed even though Stallone defended the casting amidst blogger backlash saying, “The anger is understandable, but not fair. If a man can communicate in one medium, he can communicate in another,” he said. “Trust me, the change of Forest Whitaker to Curtis is a good one.”
Apparently it wasn’t a “good one” as Sly has now told Ain’t It Cool News Terry Crews will now play Hale Caesar as Fitty is thrown to the sidelines. No reason was given, but I have a hard time believing the insane amount of hatred from online movie writers played a part.
Next comes word from Stallone Zone with a note from Sly regarding fan requests to cast Stallone’s Tango and Cash co-star, Kurt Russell:
I know that many people on the site have asked for Kurt Russell. I asked for him too. Actually, I was taken aback when asked to put the request in a letter and send it to his agent. Subsequently, I was called back by the agent several days later after refusing to send a letter and he said Kurt Russell is not interested in ‘ensemble acting’ at this time.
So, People, I came, I saw, I failed.
Best,
Sly
Finally, chatter has already started related to the film’s anticipated PG-13 rating, which is only fitting considering my article posted earlier today. I will say the decision to go softer than R is a bit surprising considering the “talent” involved, but I am not sure if I am going to take silly potshots at it like Devin Faraci at CHUD has done considering this thing is hardly aiming for anything more than a mindless actioner hardly worthy of serious evaluation, which is exactly what Faraci is doing.
Thanks to SlashFilm for providing additional links for this report.
