Sylvester Stallone has struck gold with “The Expendables”, and the next installment in the series is already underway – but it seems the star isn’t entirely too happy with how the last film turned out in some regards. In a recent statement, Stallone claimed that “The Expendables 3” should not have received a PG-13 rating, and the production of the fourth film is again aiming for an R rating like the previous films.
According to Stallone, having to develop the film around a PG-13 rating significantly changed the production style, and forced him and the crew to think in new ways which were ultimately harmful for the explosive action that they were going for. Stallone claimed that the decision was made in order to try and bring the film to a wider audience, but in the end this backfired as it alienated some of the older fans, while the new film didn’t really see much success with the younger crowds. At least not on a sufficient level to justify losing the older fans, according to Stallone.
One production aspect that was significantly affected by the rating was how characters were handled, as according to Stallone, an R-rated movie sets the expectation that main characters could very well die – while this is not the case with a PG-13 production. This is one of the reasons Stallone has given for wanting to go back to an R rating for “The Expendables 4”. The first two films were indeed more dramatic and unpredictable with regards to how their plots moved, and it would not be a bad idea for Stallone to go back to this style. The cast is diverse enough to allow for plenty of experiments in this regard.
The release of the third film was accompanied by a variety of problems, not all related to the rating. Parts of the movie were leaked online before its release, which created some negative impressions about it in the public. In addition, the marketing of the third film was approached in a slightly different way, one that was not very beneficial for the production’s overall success.
Stallone has claimed multiple times that he’s learned from his mistakes with “The Expendables 3” and he’s putting a lot of effort into the production of the next film, hoping to win back the hearts of the fans he’s lost with the failed experiments in the third film. “The Expendables 4” will take a while to get ready, but if Stallone fulfills all of his promises for the new film, it will definitely be worth the wait for both old fans of the series, as well as those experiencing it for the first time.