EXPENDABLES 3 News That Somehow Did Not Come From Twitter

After all the gossip and uncertain announcements, Expendables 3 goes into production today and we finally have an official cast:

Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Randy Couture, Terry Crews, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Wesley Snipes, Antonio Banderas, Mel Gibson, Harrison Ford, Kellan Lutz, Ronda Rousey, Victor Ortiz, and Glen Powell.

So no Jackie Chan, no Nicolas Cage, and no Meryl Streep. Basically, the exciting new names belong to Snipes, Ford, Banderas, and Gibson. No word on how many minutes Jet Li will hang out for this time.

We do have a synopsis though!

In THE EXPENDABLES 3, Barney (Stallone), Christmas (Statham) and the rest of the team comes face-to-face with Conrad Stonebanks (Gibson), who years ago co-founded The Expendables with Barney. Stonebanks subsequently became a ruthless arms trader and someone who Barney was forced to kill… or so he thought. Stonebanks, who eluded death once before, now is making it his mission to end The Expendables — but Barney has other plans. Barney decides that he has to fight old blood with new blood, and brings in a new era of Expendables team members, recruiting individuals who are younger, faster and more tech-savvy. The latest mission becomes a clash of classic old-school style versus high-tech expertise in the Expendables’ most personal battle yet.

I have to admit, if we were to line up all three plots side by side, this might be the most interesting one. I also have to admit little optimism that it can live up to the potentially cool B-action film revealed in that synopsis.

But who knows? The first film tried to be sincere. The second film tried to be funny. Maybe this one will actually try to be awesome. All I know for sure is that the lack of Mickey Rourke does not bode well.