Sylvester Stallone had a big thing in mind when he decided to write, direct, and star in The Expendables, a movie about the best mercenaries in the world hired for a mission to rid a South American country of a despot. His behind-the-scenes work in Rocky is one of the most-recognized in his career and his writing work was used as an example of what a good plot should be. Later, he would direct Rambo.

Stallone had his creative juices flowing again in The Expendables, another action film that pays tribute to the action movies of the past. It’s no coincidence; his recent work all seemed to be inspired by his past successful movies. It’s not at all bad because he already has a good following who would like to see more of him playing the old characters that people have grown used to seeing over and over again on video.

In The Expendables, he’s not playing an old character, though. Instead, he plays a new one along with select action stars of the eighties and nineties. There’s Dolph Lundgren, Bruce Willis, Mickey Rourke, and Jet Li. But he also adds some new blood in the film, former wrestler Sean Austin, mixed martial artist Randy Couture, former NFL player Terry Crews, and Transporter star Jason Statham.

Stallone reportedly personally invited Jean-Claude Van Damme and Steven Seagal to be part of The Expendables, but both declined. The dropout of Van Damme from the cast list was said to be the reason why Lundgren came into the picture, although it’s not clear if it’s for the same role. Lundgren, who starred as antagonist to Stallone’s Rocky in Rocky 4, plays the Swedish expendable at odds with Li’s Bao Thao.

Arnold Schwarzenegger was also invited to play Mr. Church, the guy who hires the group, but he declined to settle for a cameo owing to conflicts with his political duties as California governor. His real-life role is after all, not expendable. Thus, the role went to Bruce Willis. There’s a scene where Willis, Stallone, and Schwarzenegger appear together. That’s a first in the history of movies.

In spite of casting problems which included rewrites do to the unavailability of actors – Brittany Murphy had a role in the film but passed away before she could start filming – the The Expendables film is more or less guaranteed to make big bucks with its big-name stars. It happened before in the movie Ocean’s 13 and it can happen again. If you like big action where there are lots of hand-to-hand combat with fists and knives and shooting guns, amidst big settings, The Expendables is for you.

Jean-Claude explains what happened when Sylvester Stallone asked him to join The Expendables.

You can make money from nothing online and make it grow. Just take the GeoString Challenge! It seriously pays!