The Expendables 4 (2022)
The Expendables 4(stylized asExpend4bles) is an upcoming Americanaction filmdirected byScott Waugh, with a script co-written byKurt Wimmer, Tad Daggerhart andMax Adams, from an original story byKurt Wimmer,Spenser Cohenand Tad Daggerhart. It is the fourth installment inThe Expendablesfranchiseand the sequel toThe Expendables 3(2014), starring anensemble castincludingJason Statham,Dolph Lundgren, Steven Seagal, Randy Couture, andSylvester Stallonereprising their roles from previous films, alongside50 Cent,Megan Fox,Andy García,Tony Jaa,Jacob Scipio,Iko Uwais,Levy TranandEddie Hall.
Statham,Avi Lerner, Les Weldon, Yariv Lerner, and Kevin King serve as producers. The film will retain anR ratinglike the first two films in the franchise. The film is scheduled to be released in the United States on September 22, 2023, byLionsgate.
Premise, Development.
The film depicts a nuclear conflict between Russia and the United States that The Expendables are drawn into. In March 2014, Pierce Brosnan stated that he had agreed with producer Avi Lerner to star in The Expendables 4 film. By April of the same year, Sylvester Stallone revealed his first choice for the villain was Jack Nicholson, while mentioning his interest in convincing Clint Eastwood to join the production. By November of the same year, it was announced that the project is being developed with intent to retain its R-rating like the first two films. In December 2016, Stallone announced that the fourth installment will be the final film in the series, while a scheduled tentative release date was set for 2018. By March 2017, Stallone had left the project and the franchise,
due to creative differences over the script and direction for continuing the franchise. In January 2018, after vocal support from other cast members (including Arnold Schwarzenegger), Stallone announced his return to the series with a post to his social media platforms; confirming new developments on the fourth movie. Randy Couture confirmed his involvement in March of the same year.
In June 2020, Jean-Claude Van Damme expressed interest in returning to the franchise, publicly pitching his idea of playing Claude Vilain, the brother to his villain character, Jean Vilain, from The Expendables 2. By August 2020, Vértice Cine announced their involvement as a production studio on the movie, alongside Lionsgate and Millennium Films. They also revealed that Patrick Hughes
will return to the series as director. In November 2020, the president of Millennium Media, Jeffrey Greenstein, stated that the studio is continuing to work on The Expendables 4 after various delays within the industry worldwide due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In August 2021, The Hollywood Reporter reported that Scott Waugh would be directing the film, replacing Hughes, as well as Statham serving as a producer of the film, while Stallone confirmed his involvement with the project, and that “The Expendables 4” was the same project as “The Expendables: A Christmas Story”, previously reported as a spin-off but in-fact the film’s working-title during development, Stallone stating that production was set to commence in October of that year.
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Writing, Filming.
In July 2018,Gregory Poirierannounced his role as screenwriter. Production was tentatively scheduled to begin by April 2019, though it wasn’t until July of that year that Stallone announced that he was continuing to work on the script for the project. The script was completed later that year, though negotiations with producers were ongoing. In August 2021, it was announced thatSpenser Cohenwrote the most recent draft of the script withMax Adams, from a story by Cohen.
In August 2021, it was stated thatprincipal photographywould begin in October. Filming officially commenced on September 29, 2021 In October 2021, Stallone announced on social media that he had finished filming his scenes for the movie. The film was shot inLondonandBulgariaand theJackie Chan Stunt Team handled stunt choreography. In November 2021, production was shot inGreece, including the city ofThessaloniki. Members of theGreek Armed Forceswere used asextras and alleged they were not compensated for their month-long official deployment, despite working overtime. On December 3, 2021, Tony Jaa confirmed filming had wrapped.
Theatrical, Marketing.
The Expendables 4is set to be theatrically released byLionsgateon September 22, 2023. The film was originally scheduled to be released in 2022. In April 2022, the firststandee postersfor the film were unveiled atCinemaCon. The first teaser trailer footage was released exclusively to the attendees at Lionsgate’s presentation at the convention.