American actor John Cusack may not be a big action star but he is in some of the biggest action films in Hollywood. Latest rumors have it that he will be joining the cast of “The Expendables 4” which will soon begin filming in China.
Cusack is the latest addition to the casting rumors of the action ensemble that already include the likes of Pierce Brosnan, Hulk Hogan, and Dwayne ‘The Rock” Johnson who shall join Sylvester Stallone and company for “The Expendables 4,” notes the Ecumenical News.
There have been reports early this year that Sylvester Stallone shall no longer be in the fourth film of the franchise especially if he wins the Oscars, having been nominated for Best Supporting Actor category in the Academy Awards for the movie “Creed.” Sly’s Oscar nomination was for the movie “Creed” and it came after 40 years after getting nominated for “Rocky” back in 1976.
Apparently, there is no truth to the rumors as Stallone will be onboard the film regardless of whether he gets an Oscars or not. While he did get the Golden Globes acting award for the same category, he was not able to get the Oscars.
However, it was not a condition that Stallone set on himself or the movie because just like the first three movies of the franchise, he will take the lead in the fourth action ensemble as Barney Ross, cites Crossmap.
To focus more on ‘Creed 2’ than ‘The Expendables 4’
The rumors about Stallone not returning for “The Expendables 4” came out because the information about the movie was few and far in between. At that point, Stallone was making the headlines because of his nomination from the Academy Awards.
So putting two in two together, some came out with the idea that if he wins the Oscars, he would then focus more on “Creed 2” rather than “The Expendables 4,” thus the reports saying that he would take a backseat in the action ensemble franchise.
However, action movie critics believe that those are absurd rumors because they know that even Sylvester Stallone is aware that if his character is not in the movie, The Expendables as a band of mercenaries shall no longer be complete.
The last three films saw Sylvester Stallone as Barney Ross, backstopped by Jason Statham as Lee Christmas, as the obvious leaders of The Expendables. While there are plenty of big-name action stars in the movie, it is obvious that Sly calls the shots and that is likely to remain in “The Expendables 4,” note the critics.
“The Expendables” movie franchise is Stallone’s baby and he took the effort to bring other action stars onboard as the series continued and that is why it has become a great action franchise that it is now.
Learned its lesson from the past sequel
Despite the not-so-good performance of “The Expendables 3” in the box-office when it hit theaters in 2014, the main reason for it is that a pirated version of the film came out before it officially hit theaters thus causing a negative impact on the movie’s ticket sales.
According to a source close to the “Rambo” actor, at his age, Sylvester Stallone has done it all as an actor and action star so he just wants to make movies that people could remember him by. An award or two there are just bonuses because for him, the important thing now is to be able to make people enjoy his movies. And he can do that by being in the film and not out of it, the source adds.
The rumors about Stallone no longer assuming the role of Barney Ross in “The Expendables 4” came as an offshoot of the recent interview of Terry Crews, who plays the role of Hale Caesar in the action film franchise.
Crews was quoted as saying that Stallone might or might no longer include himself in “The Expendables 4” because he is busy working on “Creed 2.”