Statham in talks to join Susan Cooper

You may remember, a while back, that we reported The Stath had registered some interest in possibly doing a buddy cop comedy type film or some sort of comedy partnership and had mentioned Will Ferrell's name. NOW we have news that the Britkicker is eyeing a role in Paul Feig's (Bridesmaids, The Heat) new comedy spy actioner "Susan Cooper" starring Melissa McCarthy.
Obviously it's not quite the testosterone filled 48 hours type action comedy we may have envisaged but it would be fun to see Statham handle something like this so different in tone. It's also a wise move as Melissa McCarthy is hugely popular right now and it could give JS an even bigger boost into the Hollywood stratosphere after The Expendables franchise and Fast 7.

As the film is designed to be a female James Bond type deal, the studio is even whispering about a possible franchise should it prove successful.
Bond comedy rip offs are tricky and the likes of Austin Powers, Johnny English and Get Smart have all sort of failed to maintain an audience past their initial run, could Statham and McCarthy have the right comedy chemistry to make this fly?
What do you think?
Statham showed great comedic skill in the Crank films and proved a worthy sidekick in The Expendables, there's also a long history of action stars doing comedy films (with varying degrees of success) do you think and/or like this possible pairing and direction for The Stath's career??
LET US KNOW in the COMMENTS BELOW!!

- The Kick Ass Kid

EXPENDABLES 3 Update - Frasier Crane and near death for Statham

News has come through today that Kelsey Grammar, him of Cheers and Frasier fame, is joining the cast of The Expendables 3 instead of Nicolas Cage. He will, apparently, play the part, earmarked initially for Cage, of Bonaparte, an ex-mercanary who help the team out.

I give you a moment to let it sink in.

Now there are a few bizarre things about this news, not least of which has to be that Nic Cage actually turned down a film role! A periphery glance at his recent work on IMDB shows you how much of a rarity that is.

The other bizarre thing is the tons of action actors, yet to be put into a role, that could've done this and would've been better suited:
Steven Seagal, Kurt Russell, Roddy Piper, Jeff Speakman, Jeff Wincott, Billy Blanks, Pam Grier, Sigourney Weaver, Nick Nolte, Eddie Murphy, Danny Glover, Carl Weathers, Sho Kosugi, Gene Hackman, Timothy Dalton, Roger Moore, Don 'The Dragon' Wilson, Fred Williamson, Liam Neeson and even Grammer's old Cheers colleague, Woody Harrelson!
I think Grammer is a lot of fun in The Simpsons, 30 Rock and even Frasier back in the day and if he was narrating the film then it wouldn't be such a shock but as an old mercenary helping out these 80s action stars, I am not so sure.
Ex3, with all the weird news we've had so far, is going to have some surprises in store for certain, I think.

This announcement comes off the back of Robert Davi's surprise casting as well. Davi is more obvious, of course, with his James Bond bad guy heritage but let's hope that he doesn't turn Ex3 into another Bad Pack

The other news that emerged this week, from the cool and funny lips of Terry Crews no less, is the story that, the legend that is, Jason Statham narrowly avoided death, or at least injury, on the set of Expendables 3 when a truck he was driving failed to stop and plunged into the Black sea.
Terry Crews told the story to Jay Leno on The Tonight Show saying that Statham simply swam out from the truck, leaving it to sink into the water, and was back to work later that day.

This is the second water and Statham related stunt-gone-wrong incident on Expendables 3 that has been reported in as many months. I am not sure if they are the same story but the first one stated Statham did a pond based stunt, earmarked for a stunt man, and ended up going to hospital with water in his lungs but this telling of this, possible, second incident by Crews, seems to have the Britkicker seemingly strolling out of the water unharmed and heading back to work.
I believe the second story more, Statham, hasn't spent time in hospital in his life. He heals himself using man sweat and awesomeness.

- The Kick Ass Kid

win an AWESOME grindhouse action film with 

THE AFTER MOVIE DINER!

Gibson and Banderas CONFIRMED as Expendable

After rumours back and forth, according to Entertainment Weekly and one of Stallone's reps Mel Gibson is officially signed on to play the villain in EX3 which could form part of a villainous comeback for Mel if Machete Kills is as damn good fun as it looks. It also means that mentioned story points about a younger, computer literate team being the villains maybe not happening now and we, personally, couldn't be happier about that.
The more oldies he adds, the better.
As for Mel's previous alcohol related troubles what do people think? do we care when we see him on the screen being enjoyable? Let us know!
In the same announcement, the man who Stallone calls "a consummate actor and a gentleman" Antonio Banderas, who has long been rumoured for a part in the franchise, has also been added, officially, to the cast.
So that's two more official members to the film and, personally, I am happy that they are some old, proper 80s and 90s action stars. That's what these films NEED. As long as they are not young computer nerds because that will surely make them the Scrappy Do of the film and was tried in Die Hard 4 where the only weak part was Olyphant's pathetic villain. I prefer the idea of the President kidnap scenario, sort of an Air Force One 2 with Ford as a kick ass Pres, Gibson as a hand ringing villain and Banderas as a member of the Expendables.
Whatever happens in Stallone we trust!

-The Kick Ass Kid

Harrison Ford Jonesing for some group action!

Stallone hit Twitter again today and proves that, not only are they still casting and, therefor, supposedly scripting EX3 right down to the wire (it's set to start filming this August) but also that this film will scoop up and include basically every single action star it possibly can.

His tweet about Ford read:
WILLIS OUT... HARRISON FORD IN !!!! GREAT NEWS !!!!! Been waiting years for this!!!!

and followed it up with

GREEDY AND LAZY ...... A SURE FORMULA FOR CAREER FAILURE

Now I don't know if that second Tweet is an inspirational comment or a dig at Willis but there is the news: Willis, who plays Mr. Church in the franchise (and whose character, to be fair, has sort of run its course), will not be returning and Harrison "Inidiana Jones" Ford will be joining the, already, mega star cast.

Some have speculated the cast is getting a bit ridiculous and it's going to be a mess but IN STALLONE WE TRUST. I personally think it's awesome news and they should continue adding people all the way up to day one. I love it.

UPDATE: it is now being reported by various outlets from sources inside the film that Willis was booted off for demanding $4million for 4 days work in Bulgaria after already being offered $3million!
Firstly that's not exactly the spirit of ensemble films like this (you know some folks who work EVERY day on the film aren't getting that much) and also it's just ridiculously greedy.

It seems like, from recent behaviour, that Willis is trying to torpedo any good will people had towards him and while we here at the blog are still very much 'hate the artist but not the art' it is a shame that this was the reason he backed out and I wish he would pay just a little bit of attention and put some effort in to how he comes across.

Stallone's camp would only confirm that the second tweet was aimed squarely at Willis. So that answers that then. I can only imagine how he feels, he wants his old mates around him and he wants the film to be as good as possible.

Ford, who is also known for being prickly or odd in interviews, clearly didn't make such demands and fan reaction seems to be positive, so good for him!

- The Kick Ass Kid

Dolph Lundgren wanted for He-Man reboot and JCVD wants to bring Van Dammage to Avengers 2!

As is seemingly inevitable in this day and age, not content with remaking every horror film we hold dear they are now going to start working their way through our action childhood too and a remake or reboot (or whatever word is trendy that week) of Masters of The Universe is in the works.

This week the director, John Chu (director of the delayed G.I. Joe: Retaliation) indicated that he'd like to work with Lundgren in some capacity when he made this statement:
"I don't know if Dolph Lundgren is around or what he's doing but, yeah, I think that could be some fun if we could find a way. I hope he still has the loincloth and the long hair and everything."

As there's nothing official yet you can take this with a pinch of salt.
Do you want to see a new MOTU movie?
Do you want to see Lundgren in there in some capacity?
Let us know!

The other bit of random casting news this week was that loveable, puppy hugging, splits doing Belgian, Jean-Claude Van Damme posted that picture (to the left) to his Facebook page and said:
"It was my pleasure to meet Mr. Stan Lee (creator of "X-Men", "The Incredible Hulk" and "Spider-Man") back in 1994, along with Mr. Samuel & Mr. Victor Hadida! I read that Chris Hemsworth (star of "Thor" and brother of Liam Hemsworth, "The Expendables 2") would like me to costar in "The Avengers 2" movie! Well, it would be fun to play one of these types of amazing comic book characters again. By the way, I am a big fan of Marvel's superhero Silver Surfer and also another heroic fictional character known as Doc Savage - the Man of Bronze!"
No indication where he heard that Thor wanted him in the film (possibly from his brother, Liam, on the set of EX2) but it's pretty much assured that, sadly, this will never happen.
I have read a lot of blogs deriding Van Damme or saying he was a has been, well I know people want any and all information on Avengers 2 possible but when was the last time people wrote this many blogs and news articles on a has-beens Facebook post?? hmmmmmmm?
Haters gotts hate I guess.
I personally would LOVE to see an 80s or 90s action star like Van Damme (or whoever) in some of one of these big comic book movies. They'd bring it, they'd own it and their scene or scenes would be legendary. FACT.

Do you want Van Damme in Avengers 2?
What other Expendable cast member would you want in a comic book movie?
Who would they play?

- The Kick Ass Kid

Will Vinnie Jones be Expendable?

As the shooting date draws nearer I am sure we are going to be getting a lot more rumours about the cast of Expendables 3. It's part of the fun of it!

We've all heard the Jackie Chan, Wesley Snipes, Nic cage, Clint Eastwood and Harrison Ford stuff and just last week Tom Sizemore blurted out he could be the villain!

Next on the list is Statham's old pal from the Guy Ritchie days Vinnie Jones who said recently:

 

"I've spoken to Sly... and hopefully I will be in Expendables 3," the English star confirmed.

"It's in the very early stages, but hopefully they'll write my character and me and Jason Statham will kick some arse!"

 

Vinnie Jones will also appear alongside Stallone and Schwarzenegger in this year's The Tomb.

 

While I love them adding more Brit hard men to the team I personally could go for an older, possibly Bond related actor like Timothy Dalton or even some random cameo by Doc Action favourite Sir Roger of The Moore.

Also while I enjoy these tidbits being filtered out to us via the internet I'd really like to hear some proper talk of some 80s/90s action stars like Jeff Speakman, Don "The Dragon" Wilson, Sho Kusugi, Michael Dudikoff, Cynthia Rothrock, Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Wincott, Matthias Hues, Roddy Piper, Kurt Rusell and Rutger Hauer.

 

We want your thoughts!

-The Kick Ass Kid