The Expendables 4 (also known as Expend4bales) is currently playing in theatres nationwide and debuted at No. 2 at the box office. It’s been nine years since the last Expendables movie was released, and while the new film is similar to the previous three in some aspects, it has a different feel to it for a few reasons, including the cast and the role Sylvester Stallone plays. PopCulture.com spoke exclusively to The Expendables 4 producer Les Weldon, who explained how the movie stands out from the other films in the franchise.ย
“I think this film is an evolution, and certainly from the third one it’s an evolution,” Weldon exclusively told PopCulture. “But because we’ve had three films, and the last one maybe some people were disappointed with the PG-13, and so as we were thinking, and it took many years to really think out the story, think out what we wanted to do, and we immediately thought, ‘Hey, you know what? This really has to return to its roots and we have to even up the action. We have to deliver something that the fans are going to be excited about again.’”
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Stallone, Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren and Randy Couture are the four cast members who have been in all four Expendables films. They are joined by a new group of cast members including Andy Garcia, 50 Cent and Megan Fox, who plays a big role in the movie.ย
“I’ve done a few films with Megan, and I tell you she is so professional and she’s a bit deceiving because people kind of look at Megan and go, ‘Oh, well, can she really be lethal? Is she going to be a little, I don’t know, sexy woman?’” Weldon explained. “But boy, she is tough and she’s sexy and she gets in there and fights, hits the ground, fires. If there’s explosions going off, she’s not cowering away. She’s really into it. The guys respected her for that. They respected her. I mean, she came on very strong as an actress, basically going toe to toe with Sly, with Jason and holding her own. I think they were all very impressed by that and very pleased with that.ย
In the first three Expendables movies, Stallone had a key behind-the-scenes role along with playing the lead character. For the new movie, Stallone has a limited role and is not a writer, producer or director. But Statham, who has appeared in three other movies this year, is also a producer on The Expendables 4, and Weldon enjoyed having Statham as part of the production team.ย
“Whenever you have an actor, whether it be Sly or Jason or some other actor of that stature, you want them involved in production,” Weldon said. “You don’t want to be making decisions, and then they’re questioning, ‘Why?’ You want to involve them in the aspects of production, not even story at this point. If we’re just talking about producers in production, yes, they get involved in the story, but in what’s actually going on on a day-to-day basis and filming. It’s important for them to be part of that and understand what’s happening so there are no surprises.”
