Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis.
Three names in Hollywood that defined action in the 80's and their epic films still light up our TV screens in all their explosive glory.
Now the three action stars will finally share the spotlight together for Stallone's new film, "The Expendables."
The film centers on a group of mercenaries sent to infiltrate a South American country and overthrow its ruthless dictator to liberate the population. Their team is "expendable," hired to do jobs that no one else can or will.
Besides those three, the film stars a plethora of other action stars including: Jason Statham, Jet Li, Randy Couture, Terry Crews, Dolph Lundgren, Eric Roberts, Steve Austin, David Zayas, Danny Trejo and Mickey Rourke.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Stallone explained the key scene where he will be with Schwarzenegger and Willis.
"I was just looking at the dailies, saying, 'Jesus, this is amazing!'" Stallone said. "I talked about this scene with these guys for a long time, but I never thought it would come to fruition."
The scene that the two stars make a cameo in takes place in a church where Willis has called upon Stallone's character to finally meet him in person, and see if he's fit to possibly hire for a near-suicidal mission. After some smartass witty dialogue, in comes Stallone's rival mercenary who Willis' character has also called upon for the gig. Yes, it's Ah-nuld, and they are competing for the job.
"Bruce says 'Well, there's one other person I want to talk to before I hire you… And then Arnold, who plays my old rival, walks in. We have a history together. And we go back and forth and I tell him that I should have shot him a long time ago when I had the chance. Then it goes on from there. And here we are, the three of us trying to man up to one another, playing off of who we are, using our baggage in this one scene."
Stallone says that big scene with Willis, Schwarzenegger and himself will amount to more than a cameo in the final cut of the film.
"It's probably going to be about 5 minutes of screen time."
One interesting fact that Stallone pointed out in the interview was about the box office power each of the three men hold.
"It's funny because between the three of us, if you add up all the box office and DVD rentals and all of that, there's like $15 billion in that one scene!"
I'm not going to vouch for the man's math skills, but I will say I'm glad this happened and I'm excited to see the end result on the big screen. Getting all three of them on camera is pretty impressive since Willis is currently off shooting another film in Istanbul while Schwarzenegger is off doing governmental stuff.
A promo trailer for the film (made to sell the movie to distributors) was released online to show off some of the intense action that's in the film. Lionsgate, the studio behind the film, has asked Web sites to take down the trailer, but if you wish, you can watch it here.
"The Expendables," which hits theaters August 20, 2010, is both written and directed by Sylvester Stallone.
