Eclectic Pictures and Hollywood Ventures Group are teaming up on a “female-led expansion.” Expendables Franchise, tentatively titled Expendables.
Sound familiar? that it. Since the first Expendables Hitting theaters in 2010 and grossing $100 million — effectively launching a franchise led by Sylvester Stallone that has now spawned a total of four films — few filmmakers have tried to break the narrative of starring women in lead roles.
In 2014, Legally Blonde director Robert Luketic was set to direct a version penned by that film’s writers, Kirsten Smith and Karen McCullagh, for Millennium Films that was to center on female activists who had to pose as girls called to rescue a nuclear scientist being held hostage, a plot that would surely be eviscerated across the internet today.
That version never came to fruition, nearly a decade later, Millennium’s Jeffrey Greenstein said. Hollywood Reporter One of the challenges in launching this project was “trying to find a way to justify why we have a female team.”
the first Expendables Stallone starred alongside the likes of Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Randy Couture, Steve Austin, Terry Crews, Mickey Rourke and more. Bruce Willis, Liam Hemsworth, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Harrison Ford, Wesley Snipes, Mel Gibson, Glen Powell, Antonio Banderas, Victor Ortiz, and others have appeared in later installments.
But Eclectic and HVG believe they have found a way forward with the project, which is part of a new feature slate of “global commercial films” they are developing together, which was unveiled Friday at the Cannes Film Festival as producers are in talks with distribution partners, financiers and creative talent.
According to the news, Expendables It will serve as an origin story set in the late ’90s during the height of tension and geopolitical uncertainty of the Y2K era. The newly reimagined project — originally conceived more than a decade ago alongside Millennium writers Heidi Jo Markel, Patrick Muldoon and Julie Kroll — plans to introduce a new generation of elite female workers in a “stylized, action-driven cinematic event designed to expand the franchise’s mythology while standing firmly on its own,” say the filmmakers. THRAdding that it is moving forward “with the support of Lionsgate.” After all, the studio had acquired the rights Expendables franchise late last year.
Expendables It will be produced by Eclectic’s Markel with HVG co-founder Glenn Gainor. The executive producing team includes HGV co-founder Sandy Kleiman, Thirteenth Studios’ Joe Smith, Nelly Kim, Kroll, Steven R. Voorhet and John Yarenchik. Eclectic Pictures and HVG are currently in the packaging phase and are “actively assembling” creative talent to launch the spin-off film.
“We are happy to finally attend Expendables “To life alongside our amazing partners at Hollywood Ventures Group, who share our passion for reimagining this property on a much larger cinematic scale,” Markle said in a statement. “There has always been a strong global appetite for female-led action franchises, and we believe now is the time to introduce a bold new generation of elite activists to this universe.” What excites us most is the opportunity to elevate the material by combining it with top-tier creative talent and deliver a fresh, stylish and adrenaline-filled experience to audiences around the world.
“We see this as an opportunity to honor the DNA of what he made,” said Glenn Gaynor, co-founder of HVG Expendables It resonates globally, while being developed in a way that feels timely and commercially compelling. This is a world the audience knows, but we are presenting it to them in a way they have never seen before.
An all-female action franchise has been a tough sell for Hollywood producers in recent years. A few years ago at Cannes, Jessica Chastain and Simon Kinberg made a splash by releasing their female-focused film. 355Which starred the Oscar winner opposite Penelope Cruz, Fan Bingbing, Diane Kruger and Lupita Nyong’o. The Universal Pictures version was released in theaters in 2022, but was a huge success, earning just $27 million worldwide. The Charlie’s Angels reboot in 2019 was considered a disappointment, earning just $17 million at the domestic box office and $73 million worldwide.
