I was literally about to hit the hay when I spotted an Expendables Facebook page (with a nod to MovieWeb) put up these three rather astonishing comic promotional images for the new movie. They show Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham and Scott Adkins, in comic form and I absolutely love them! I have no idea if these are official or not (I’m pretty sure they are not – let me know if I’m wrong) but thanks to however made them for doing something a little different and putting a smile on my face! If of course they are legit, kudos to Lionsgate for doing something a bit different with your marketing plans.

The Expendables 2 stars Jason Statham, Bruce Willis, Sylvester Stallone, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Terry Crews, Randy Couture, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Chuck Norris, Liam Hemsworth and is directed by Simon West. It’ll be with us here in the UK 17th August.

The Expendables are back and this time it’s personal… Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone), Lee Christmas (Jason Statham), Yin Yang (Jet Li), Gunnar Jensen (Dolph Lundgren),Toll Road (Randy Couture) and Hale Caesar (Terry Crews) — with newest members Billy the Kid (Liam Hemsworth) and Maggie (Yu Nan) aboard — are reunited when Mr. Church (Bruce Willis) enlists the Expendables to take on a seemingly simple job. The task looks like an easy paycheck for Barney and his band of old-school mercenaries. But when things go wrong and one of their own is viciously killed, the Expendables are compelled to seek revenge in hostile territory where the odds are stacked against them. Hell-bent on payback, the crew cuts a swath of destruction through opposing forces, wreaking havoc and shutting down an unexpected threat in the nick of time – six pounds of weapons-grade plutonium; enough to change the balance of power in the world. But that’s nothing compared to the justice they serve against the villainous adversary who savagely murdered their brother. That is done the Expendables way….

Click the images to enlarge and click here to view the first trailer for the movie.

Expect the unexpected with Man on a Ledge, Ghosts of Cité Soleil documentary filmmaker Asger Leth’s first feature film that offers an ever varying, well-paced and highly enjoyable crime thriller scenario. In fact, Leth might well have succeeded where other directors have failed; casting Sam Worthington in a comfortable role for once, an action-man niche for his ‘reserved’ – some might argue ‘wooden’ – acting personality.

Ex-cop Nick Cassidy (Worthington) has been convicted and jailed for stealing a $40 million dollar diamond from unscrupulous Manhattan property tycoon David Englander (Ed Harris). After being released for the day to attend his father’s funeral, Cassidy escapes then ends up checking into upmarket Manhattan hotel, the famous Roosevelt Hotel, and climbing onto his hotel room window ledge, 21 stories up, in what looks like an attempted suicide bid brought on by grief. But nothing is as it seems, and everything is for a reason.

Think ‘Noughties Phone Booth meets Ocean’s Eleven’, with a touch of Statham rough-and-ready flung in from Worthington. Apart from the nicely stimulated tension and intrigue as to where the whole narrative is heading, one of the main reasons Leth’s film works is we like Worthington’s Cassidy for no apparent reason from the start, other than we have a ‘cop’s hunch’ that he’s a guy who has taken a fall and must be allowed to restore justice – by any means. Like a Statham character – albeit minus the slick action moves, Cassidy isn’t squeaky clean, but he fights his corner and has values that we can relate to. It’s certainly a time-honoured premise that allows us to feel the world isn’t such a bad place after all, full of latter-day, flawed ‘heroes’.

Admittedly, while some parts are amusingly far-fetched – as in one gravity-defying fall at the end, another obvious reason Leth’s film is a potential hit is the attractive cast. Aside from Worthington, Elizabeth Banks is a cop negotiator playing on borrowed career time who tries to coax Cassidy off the ledge then gets a lot more on her plate than she bargained for. An athletic-looking Jamie Bell also plays Cassidy’s kid brother, Joey, teamed up with equally toned and sultry Genesis Rodriguez as his high-maintenance girlfriend, Angie. Coupled with the eye-popping gymnastics and outfits, the pair also creates a foolish comedy repartee that keeps things interesting while the tension mounts all around.

In times of austerity, Harris as Englander symbolises the latter-day folk devil – the greedy, corrupt businessman we all love to hate – and is faultless in the part. In fact, Leth’s fictional story is almost a self-serving diversion from his gritty documentary making, in that ‘the wronged’ and deserved triumphs – even if it ends with a groan-inducing slap-on-the-back for honest Irish roots and integrity.

Leth also cloaks a lot of the characters’ responses in a healthy dollop of dirty cop cynicism, which permeates proceedings and takes the edge off delivering a more polished and serious crime affair. Indeed, the film’s minor flaws, subtle self-mockery and irony work in its favour, bolstering the detailed observations and its characters’ complexed anxieties. Nobody is privy to how things will pan out, and there is a nice little twist at the end in an action flick where the sexes get to play equal in driving proceedings to fruition.

****~ (4/5)

You know that meme about Chuck Norris? The ‘Chuck Norris facts’ meme I think they call it.

The one where there are a load of facts about Chuck Norris and people list them and laugh at them. The facts that make Chuck sound like some sort of malevolent God from the planet awesome. The facts that have been circulating the internet for so long and so loudly that even mentioning them is clichéd beyond credibility.

The ones that go like this:

• Chuck Norris’ tears cure cancer. Too bad he has never cried.
• Chuck Norris counted to infinity – twice.
• Chuck Norris does not hunt because the word hunting infers the probability of failure. Chuck Norris goes killing.
• Chuck Norris has already been to Mars; that’s why there are no signs of life there.
• Chuck Norris doesn’t have a chin behind his beard. Just another fist.

You know, those facts. The ones that you hate me for recounting. God I’m ashamed of myself…

Well Chuck isn’t just some karate kicking cliché or some occasional brainless sex object there to be ironically lauded to the detriment of everyone who chooses to do so 6 years on from the facts’ inception. He’s a serious man. And will be treated as such thank you very much.

Yep, Chuck has had enough of the vulgarity that surrounds him and has made a stand with his latest appearance in The Expendables 2. Whereas the film is being pitched (as was the first) as a no-holds barred, violent, sweary, adult smash-fest of silly proportions, Chuck Norris in an interview with Polish site Gazeta has claimed that one of his conditions for signing up to the project was that the film clean up its act and cut out the hardcore swearing that Norris doth abhor so much in order to get a PG-13 rating. You know, for the kids:

The ExpendablesPremiere.com transcription of the interview shows Norris’ message as being:

In Expendables 2, there was a lot of vulgar dialogue in the screenplay. Fot this reason, many young people wouldn’t be able to watch this. But I don’t play in movies like this. Due to that I said I won’t be a part of that if the hardcore language is not erased. Producers accepted my conditions and the movie will be classified in the category of PG-13.

Well this all sounds very silly doesn’t it. If The Expendables 2 really was going for a PG-13 rating in the US then surely the language isn’t the only thing that would have to be toned down. Also since Norris surely doesn’t have that much sway in the grand scheme of things his requests will surely amount to nothing.

Even so, as a man of apparently strong moral convictions and with an internet fame that has now surely surpassed his status as a cult film star maybe it’s time that he made a stand against the ravages of two-dimensional fame. Good for you Chuck, although next time maybe don’t make a stand by starring in a film that is fundamentally defined by its R rating. I mean without blood and some fruity language what’s left? The ground breakingly nuanced performances?

Source: /Film

Danny (Jason Statham) and Hunter (Robert De Niro) are mercenaries/hit men for hire, but after a job leaves Danny face to face with the blood-caked child of his latest assignment, he decides he has had enough and disappears off half way around the world. One day, he receives word that Hunter has been kidnapped and the only way to secure his release is to extract confessions from and then execute three SAS officers who are held responsible by an Oman Sheikh for the deaths of three of his sons. But Spike (Clive Owen), an ex-SAS officer himself, soon realises that his friends are being picked off, setting him and Danny on a collision course.

*****

Putting up “based on a true story” over the opening credits and then later on including a scene where Jason Statham throws himself out of a first floor window while still tied to a chair is going to test the credulity of most, yet the book on which this film is based, The Feather Men by Ranulph Fiennes, maintains its claims to veracity, with Fiennes appearing as a character towards the end of the film. Given its murky politics of covert SAS missions to Oman and apparent efforts by the British Government to secure favourable deals on Middle Eastern oil reserves, it is perhaps no surprise to find all official sources denying that this has any factual basis, which does tend to add to the appeal of what might otherwise be a highly disposable action thriller.

Statham is undoubtedly further outside his comfort zone than usual, though a role as a tough, all-action mercenary with aspirations for a quiet life is far from a big stretch. Owen is excellent as his antagonist, intelligent, strong, ferocious in a fight and more than a match for Statham’s predictably impressive physicality. De Niro is, as he has been for more than a decade, ticking along on auto-pilot, though he gives a believable performance as a veteran mercenary, fleshing out his dialogue scenes with depth and empathy and getting stuck into fist fights and gun battles with commendable gusto.

The truth is that films like Heat, Casino, Goodfellas, Raging Bull, Taxi Driver, The King of Comedy and The Godfather Part II are now a very long time ago indeed and since that matchless run of performances came to an end De Niro has given us The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, Shark Tale and Little Fockers. For whatever reason he seems to now be in a coasting phase, which is as baffling as it is frustrating, given that he can surely not have lost the talent he previously had.

The plot is a good deal more convoluted than is set out above, eventually involving a number of false finishes and crosses, which in the end becomes more than the film can bear. Complicated plots are, of course, not a problem in and of themselves, however a seemingly throwaway, formulaic thriller simply cannot carry the weight of all of the international intrigue thrust upon it and towards the end of its over-long running time it begins to drag, weighed down by its own sense of import. Although the director Gary McKendry is trying his hand at a feature film for the first time here, he shows no signs of nerves in the face of such an experienced and accomplished cast. The pace sags at times and the “it’s not over yet” moments wear a little, however the action sequences are capably directed and even straightforward dialogue scenes are shot with a measure of imagination and creativity. The story is set in 1980 and the cars, clothes and hairstyles are all as they should be, with plenty of commendable attention to realistic props.

In the end though, the film does not coalesce into a satisfying whole. There are great sequences (Danny and Hunter taking out a target in the pre-credits prologue, Danny and Spike getting stuck into an enjoyably brutal punch up in a hospital, Danny and his crew taking over the controls of a lorry in order to cause a crash involving one of their targets), but nothing here ever really grabs the viewer. The acting is engaging enough, but with all of the blurry motives and subterfuge, it is hard to work out who to root for or care about. McKendry is clearly someone to watch for the future, though he needs and deserves better material than this. Owen and Statham can hold their heads up high, but in the end this falls short of the mark.

You can get hold of Killer Elite on DVD and Blu-ray from 16th January 2012.

***~~ (3/5)

Extras: Very poor. A “Making Of” that includes everyone except The Stath and De Niro, waxing eloquent about what a pleasure everyone was to work with. Although it runs to the best part of 30 minutes, it becomes pretty repetitive even within that time-frame and is little more than an over-blown fluff piece. Even worse is the “interview” with Jason Statham, which consists of four snippets stitched together. It runs to a couple of minutes and consists of Statham looking uncomfortable and giving truncated answers. Hardly top-drawer use of the potential of the format. The Blu-ray transfer is pretty mediocre as well.

*~~~~ (1/5)

Eschewing the accepted convention of teasing a new trailer with the unveiling of a poster a few days beforehand The Expendables 2 is following its recent trailer with this new image of Stallone making his own inimitable impression on a nearby wall.

Those merry veterans of the movie web scene AICN were deigned hard enough to debut the poster and while it won’t win any design awards it’s a pretty fair indication of what to expect.

Sylvester Stallone leads a cast of Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Chuck Norris, Terry Crews, Randy Couture, Liam Hemsworth, Jean Claude Van Damme, Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger. So there’s something for everyone. As long as all anyone actually wants is a collection musclebound actors killing people.

Here’s the synopsis,

Things go boom.

Here is a fuller synopsis,

The Expendables are back and this time it’s personal… Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone), Lee Christmas (Lee Statham), Yin Yang (Jet Li), Gunnar Jensen (Dolph Lundgren),Toll Road (Randy Couture) and Hale Caesar (Terry Crews) — with newest members Billy the Kid (Liam Hemsworth) and Maggie (Yu Nan) aboard — are reunited when Mr. Church (Bruce Willis) enlists the Expendables to take on a seemingly simple job. The task looks like an easy paycheck for Barney and his band of old-school mercenaries. But when things go wrong and one of their own is viciously killed, the Expendables are compelled to seek revenge in hostile territory where the odds are stacked against them. Hell-bent on payback, the crew cuts a swath of destruction through opposing forces, wreaking havoc and shutting down an unexpected threat in the nick of time — six pounds of weapons-grade plutonium; enough to change the balance of power in the world. But that’s nothing compared to the justice they serve against the villainous adversary who savagely murdered their brother. That is done the Expendables way….

Poster time, click to make it big.

`While the world was waiting for a trailer for The Dark Knight Rises to appear the first trailer for Simon West’s The Expendables 2 is thrown into the ring.

Sylvester Stallone returns with a packed cast including Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Chuck Norris, Terry Crews, Randy Couture, Liam Hemsworth, Jean Claude Van Damme, Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Here’s the synopsis,

The Expendables are back and this time it’s personal… Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone), Lee Christmas (Lee Statham), Yin Yang (Jet Li), Gunnar Jensen (Dolph Lundgren),Toll Road (Randy Couture) and Hale Caesar (Terry Crews) — with newest members Billy the Kid (Liam Hemsworth) and Maggie (Yu Nan) aboard — are reunited when Mr. Church (Bruce Willis) enlists the Expendables to take on a seemingly simple job. The task looks like an easy paycheck for Barney and his band of old-school mercenaries. But when things go wrong and one of their own is viciously killed, the Expendables are compelled to seek revenge in hostile territory where the odds are stacked against them. Hell-bent on payback, the crew cuts a swath of destruction through opposing forces, wreaking havoc and shutting down an unexpected threat in the nick of time — six pounds of weapons-grade plutonium; enough to change the balance of power in the world. But that’s nothing compared to the justice they serve against the villainous adversary who savagely murdered their brother. That is done the Expendables way….

Here it is people! The one you’ve all been waiting for! it’s the first official poster for The Expendables 2 and it packs some serious punch! The movie appears to have the title EX2. I Don’t know yet if that is the official title for the movie but we’ll keep you posted. Joining Sylvester Stallone on the poster are: Jean-Claude Van Damme Chuck Norris, Dolph Lundgren. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jason Statham, Bruce Willis, and Terry Crews. Jet Li, Scott Adkins, Jet Li and Liam Hemsowrth also star in the movie but they didn’t make the cut on the poster!

The film should be with us August 2012.

Click he poster to enlarge.

Source: JoBlo

Lionsgate have sent over the new US trailer for their brand new movie, Safe. It stars Jason Statham, Catherine Chan, James Hong, Reggie Lee, Robert John Burke and is directed by Boaz Yakin.

Synopsis: A second-rate cage fighter on the mixed martial arts circuit, Luke Wright lives a numbing life of routine beatings and chump change…until the day he blows a rigged fight. Wanting to make an example of him, the Russian Mafia murders his family and banishes him from his life forever, leaving Luke to wander the streets of New York destitute, haunted by guilt, and tormented by the knowledge that he will always be watched, and anyone he develops a relationship with will also be killed.

But when he witnesses a frightened twelve-year-old Chinese girl, Mei, being pursued by the same gangsters who killed his wife, Luke impulsively jumps to action…and straight into the heart of a deadly high-stakes war. Mei, he discovers, is no ordinary girl, but an orphaned math prodigy forced to work for the Triads as a “counter.” He discovers she holds in her memory a priceless numerical code that the Triads, the Russian mob and a corrupt faction of the NYPD will kill for.

Realizing he’s the only person Mei can trust, Luke tears a swath through the city’s brutal underworld to save an innocent girl’s life…and perhaps even redeem his own.

Safe hits UK cinemas 2nd March 2012.

In case you haven’t already heard, the sequel to last year’s all-star action blockbuster, The Expendables, has been increasing its cast and signing everyone who’s anyone in the martial arts/butt-kicking scene.

Last week, we got a look at Sylvester Stallone, who won’t be directing this time around, hanging out with Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger on the set of The Expendables 2.

We’ve now got a picture, courtesy of Collider, that shows of a few more cast members, most notably giving us our first look at the one and only Mr. Chuck Norris – the ‘Mr.’ because the man could destroy with his eyes, so it’s a good idea to be polite. Norris is of course renowned for his general awesomeness, and though I confess that I’ve never actually seen him act – don’t hate me – I am naturally a fan of many of the Chuck Norris jokes you hear every now and then. A personal favourite, via TheChuckNorrisFacts, being:

“Chuck Norris does not hunt because the word hunting infers the probability of failure. Chuck Norris goes killing.”

The sequel will be directed by Simon West (Con Air, The General’s Daughter), and along with Stallone, Schwarzenegger, and Willis, we should get to see Jason Statham, Jet Li, Liam Hemsworth, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Randy Couture, Terry Crews, Dolph Lundgren, Scott Adkins, and possibly John Travolta and Donnie Yen, who remain rumours at the moment. Essentially, more names than you can reasonably fit into one sentence (but I did it anyway).

Principal photography is clearly underway for The Expendables 2, with a release date currently scheduled for 17th August next year, making it quite possibly/probably 2012’s biggest summer blockbuster in terms of cast recognition. Without further ado, here’s the new photo from the set, with Mr. Norris himself. As usual, click to enlarge.

Schwarzenegger’s appearance alongside Stallone and Willis in the first Expendables film was a glorified cameo and didn’t have nearly as much impact as they all seemed to think it did. Frankly, I felt robbed and it is therefore with some gratitude that I hear that there may be a bit more of him this time around.

Yes, it’s sequel time and along with the rest of the returning cast, we should get a whole host of other action stars as well. So far, we know to expect Randy Couture, Terry Crews, Dolph Lundgren, Jet Li, Jason Statham, Sly, Scott Adkins, Chuck Norris (who apparently can win Connect 4 in three moves), Jean Claude Van Damme, Bruce Willis and possibly The Rock, Vin Diesel, John Travolta and Nic Cage. Crikey.

Rumour-mongering aside, we know that Sly, Willis and Arnie are on set, because we have this lovely photo to prove it. So there.

Source: It’s from Arnie’s Twitter feed.

UPDATE: It seems the man can’t get enough of tweeting his movements, today he also found the time to tweet a pic of him ‘wrapping up a big day on The Last Stand with Zach Gilford and our great director, Jee-Woon Kim’.

]]> http://www.heyuguys.co.uk/2011/10/19/schwarzenegger-on-set-for-the-expendables-2/feed/ 0 http://www.heyuguys.co.uk/2011/10/05/vin-diesel-teases-at-least-two-more-fast-furious-films-and-jason-statham-is-in-early-talks/ http://www.heyuguys.co.uk/2011/10/05/vin-diesel-teases-at-least-two-more-fast-furious-films-and-jason-statham-is-in-early-talks/#comments Wed, 05 Oct 2011 17:00:34 +0000 Kenji Lloyd http://www.heyuguys.co.uk/?p=109849

Vin Diesel has built up a substantial following through his Facebook – more than twenty seven million people and counting, you have to admit, is pretty immense.

He has a great track-record of sharing information with his loyal fans through his page, and the latest news he’s given us is absolutely fantastic, teasing the possibility that the sequel to this year’s explosive Fast Five will come in the form of not one but two more films in the franchise!

“Was just talking to my friend Paul… 10 years, a decade of heart put into this franchise. There is so much story… might not be able to be contained to one film.”

Fans of the films will of course recognise that Paul as Paul Walker, the second half of the series’ top two leading men, with each having starred in four of the five films to date (Walker led number two but wasn’t seen in Tokyo Drift, whilst Diesel skipped 2 Fast 2 Furious but had a cameo in the third).

Word now comes from Twitch, via Collider, that not only confirms that suggestion of there being at least two more films to come, but says that there are plans to shoot the two films back-to-back in Europe, with shooting expected to take place throughout 2012. And guess who’s just starting early talks to join the film.

None other than our own Jason Statham, the ridiculously brilliant star of films like Guy Ritchie’s Snatch, Crank, The Transporter, and most recently Killer Elite. Fast Five saw the cast of the franchise get an excellent addition in the form of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and expanding the cast by one more to include Statham in at least one of the next two movies would be an awesome move.

Fast Five was a transition film that began the process of moving the series from being cars-focused towards the heist genre, and Fast Six and Seven should be looking to cement that notion, being based in the latter. The transition in Fast Five was done both effortlessly and brilliantly, and I cannot wait to see what director Justin Lin, Diesel, Walker, and everyone else involved have in store for us.

Fast Six has a release date scheduled for 24th May, 2013, so we’ve still got just over a year and a half to wait to see what happens next, but if you happened to catch the mid-credits scene at the end of Fast Five, you’ll know that they’ve got a fantastic ace up their sleeve, and I am dying to find out how they’re going to bring back that familiar face from the past.

We’ve had a fight sequence clip which showed Clive Owen and his tash for new movie, Killer Elite and now we get to see the legend that is, Robert De Niro doing the same thing in a clip called Subway Fight.

The Killer Elite also stars Jason Statham, Yvonne Strahovski, Dominic Purcell​​, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje​​ and is directed by Gary McKendry.

Killer Elite  is set for release in the UK cinemas 23rd September and you can see all our coverage of Killer Elite here.

Synopsis: Based on a true story, Killer Elite races across the globe from Australia to Paris, London and the Middle East in the action-packed account of an ex-special ops agent (Jason Statham) who is lured out of retirement to rescue his mentor (Robert De Niro). To make the rescue, he must complete a near-impossible mission of killing three tough-as-nails assassins with a cunning leader (Clive Owen).

Source: Yahoo

The promise of a thriller with a sexy, all-star cast of Jason Statham, Clive Owen and Robert De Niro is enough to whet the appetite for a trip to the cinema. Debut writer-director Gary McKendry’s adaptation of Ranulph Fiennes’ novel, The Feather Men, should be the action man’s version of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy this week. The big names are all present in Killer Elite, as are the dramatic stunts and action sequences, but all within an overly complex, erratic thriller framework that has moments of viable tension, but others of dramatic silliness.

When Danny’s (Statham) mentor Hunter (De Niro) is taken captive by a Sheik in Oman, the retired member of Britain’s Elite SAS is forced into action to free him by taking the lives of three assassins. But Danny’s mission is not to run smoothly, especially with an equally skilled killer, Spike (Owen), on his tail.

There’s no doubt that Statham, Owen and De Niro perform as expected in roles we have seen them in before, and you can happily get your fill watching them do what they do best in a testosterone-fuelled explosion of bullet-riddled mayhem that’s pure old-school. Witnessing Statham meeting Owen head to head – once while tied to a chair – is what action sequences are made for, and there is a nice Paris Metro chase scene involving De Niro, too. Indeed, to add to the thrills and claret spills, Dominic Purcell as ‘gun for hire’ playboy Davies also raunchily captures the chauvinistic and on-the-edge nature of a trained killer for hire in the decadent 80s. The film’s mix is a gritty one of extreme violence with smatterings of ironic humour.

However, even with the reassuring ‘based on a true story’ line at the start and the rather topical element of a corrupt Arab leader settling personal grudges, McKendry’s stab at the genre is left more than unintentionally comical at times, mainly due to some poor script writing – one example being Spike’s meetings with a bunch of old secret service men that roll out every clichéd line in the thriller handbook. Another is the Indiana Jones-styled desert chase scenes and others involving the Sheik in his lair.

McKendry’s plot is riddled with holes and often lacks explanation, while it jumps around so much that the only thing you can engage with are the set-pieces of daring action. Even some of these are borderline gratuitous, rather than adding to the tension created when killers come after killers. The whole affair smacks of film-making inexperience, which is a shame considering the wealth of the source material and talent.

At the very least, McKendry allows us to revel in and be entertained by his star cast – the only advantage of this woefully under-developed exploitation action-thriller. The tragic thing is thinking just how much better it could have been in more experienced hands.

**~~~ (2/5)

According to Deadline, up-and-coming Australian actor Liam (brother of Thor’s Chris) Hemsworth is joining the starry cast of action dinosaurs in The Expendables 2.

Hemsworth will team up with the original’s director/star (Con Air’s Simon West is welding the megaphone this time around) Sylvester Stallone, alongside Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, Mickey Rourke, Terry Crews, Jet Li, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis and newcomers Chuck Norris and Jean-Claude Van Damme.

This piece of casting is certainly a shrewd move by the makers. Hemsworth is on the cusp of major stardom owing to one of the starring roles in the upcoming, hugely anticipated adaptation of the hit young-adult science fiction novel, The Hunger Games, which is due for release in the UK next March.

No word yet if his role in The Expendables sequel will be that of Stallone’s grandson, which the 21-year-old could feasibly play.

I’d not heard of this new movie before seeing the trailer released last week but this movie looks fabulous. It’s called 13 and stars Jason Statham, Sam Riley, 50 Cent, Mickey Rourke, Michael Shannon, Alexander Skarsgård, Ray Liotta and is directed by Gela Babluani. The film is a remake of the French movie, 13 Tzameti which was also directed by Babluani.

A desperate young man assumes a false identity in order to enter a high-stakes underworld game of Russian Roulette in order to pay off his debts. In this game of power, violence, and chance wealthy men gamble behind closed doors on the lives of shooters who take aim at each other, armed with nothing more than a bullet in the chamber.

No UK release date as yet but we’ll keep you posted.

Killer Elite is a movie that you must see, not only because it features amazing fight sequences or Jason Statham and Clive Owen but more for the fact that it features the craziest moustache that you’ve ever seen in your life! Apparently this is based on a true story but the only question I have… ‘Who would have a tash that crazy in real life?!’

The Killer Elite also stars Robert De Niro, Yvonne Strahovski, Dominic Purcell​, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje​ and is directed by Gary McKendry.

Killer Elite  is set for release in the UK cinemas 23rd September and you can see all our coverage of Killer Elite here.

Synopsis: Based on a true story, Killer Elite races across the globe from Australia to Paris, London and the Middle East in the action-packed account of an ex-special ops agent (Jason Statham) who is lured out of retirement to rescue his mentor (Robert De Niro). To make the rescue, he must complete a near-impossible mission of killing three tough-as-nails assassins with a cunning leader (Clive Owen).

This new clip features Owen and Statham in a fight in a hospital and therefore is aptly named Danny and Spike Fight in Hospital! Enjoy!

Here’s some rather welcome news at 23.40 on a Tuesday evening! While I’m sitting here waiting for the new Twilight trailer to drop, EW have just posted the news that Chuck Norris and Jean Claude van Damme have been confirmed for The Expendables 2 with Nicolas Cage on the wish-list. This news follows that of Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger are on board too.

In an interview with Sylvester Stallone who wrote, directed and starred in the original movie, he broke the news that Van Damme and Norris are confirmed and thinks that Cage will be appearing but it sounds like he wants to get a few more involved too including Michael Biehn and Michael Pare and maybe even John Travolta making it a nice Face Off reunion with Cage:

“We’ll have a big showdown between me and Van Damme, which has been anticipated for a long time, so it should be a good one”

“We’ve got Chuck Norris and I think Nic Cage. We’re trying to work out different scenarios. I like using people that had a moment and then maybe have fallen on some hard times and give them another shot. So we’re always looking for actors like Michael Biehn and Michael Pare. I like those kinds of guys. Someone did it for me and I like to see if I can do it for them. We also need some new blood in there, a Navy Seal-type, because with the Expendables none of them have 20-20 vision anymore. They need some help, man.”

I was desperate for Norris and Van Damme to appear to appear in the original 2009 movie but it looks like we had to wait a couple of years longer to see them. The addition of Cage could be cool and all I need to do now is work out how I can get on set! Now all we need is for Steven Seagal and Jackie Chan to sign on the dotted line and the line up is complete! Then again, we’ll need some more people for The Expendables 3 no doubt!

The movie is expected to be released August 2012 and shooting starts at the end of this month.

I don’t think we’ve seen enough revenge thrillers with guns this week, so I lay these offerings at your feet: Four clips and a suite of fancy posters from the long awaited big screen team up of Jason Statham and Robert De Niro – Killer Elite.

The film marks the feature debut of writer/diector Gark McKendry and much has been made (on this site anyway) of the moustache of Clive Owen. Certainly the marketing isn’t shy of the facial hairpiece and Owen is back in Shoot Em Up/Bourne mode here as he faces off against Statham’s ex-Special Ops man out to save his mentor (this is where Mr. De Niro earns his money) and it all looks very loud and confusing.

UK people have until the 23rd of September to make up their minds, which these clips should help with.

Collider collected the clips concurrently,

And the busy bods at IMPA got their hands on the barrage of new posters, which won’t win any points for subtlety but which are hard to fault in their demographigrab,

News continues to trickle in regarding the follow-up to the guilty pleasure (and frustrating waste of a golden opportunity) that was The Expendables. It looks as  though pretty much everyone who survived the first film is set to return, with a bit of added Chuck Norris and JCVD, if persistent internet rumours are to be believed.

Obviously Arnie and Bruce Willis cameoed in the first film, to mixed effect. This time around, director Simon West (ConAir, The General’s Daughter) looks set to give them a little more to do. Frankly, that must be a good move. Arnie hasn’t taken part in a decent action sequence in years and years, whereas Brucie has shown in more recent offerings like RED and Die Hard 4.0 that he still has fantastic action chops, so lobbing them all into some well-choreographed mayhem should be plenty of fun.

Filming is due to kick off in October 2011 for a summer 2012 release, so this should all start coming together pretty soon. Of course calling someone’s role “substantial” is very much eye of the beholder stuff, so we’ll have to wait and see whether we’re talking glorified cameos, or something a little more meaningful. I’d pay good money to see Willis, Arnie and Sly standing side by side, massive guns and rocket launchers in hand, levelling a city block, or an acre of Latin American jungle, but I’ll have to wait like the rest of you.

Source: Deadline.

Following on from the UK banner for Killer Elite, reader of the site Mike alerted us to this new international version which shows Clive Owen (fear not as he’s still got the tash!), Jason Statham and Robert De Niro shooting guns!

The movie is set for release in the UK cinemas 23rd September and you can see all our coverage of Killer Elite here.

Synopsis:

Based on a true story, Killer Elite races across the globe from Australia to Paris, London and the Middle East in the action-packed account of an ex-special ops agent (Jason Statham) who is lured out of retirement to rescue his mentor (Robert De Niro). To make the rescue, he must complete a near-impossible mission of killing three tough-as-nails assassins with a cunning leader (Clive Owen).

The Killer Elite also stars Yvonne Strahovski, Dominic Purcell, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje and is directed by Gary McKendry.