When “The Expendables” came out in 2010, 80s and 90s action fans rejoiced: Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis in one movie? That sounded like a wet dream to many! Precisely because such a station wagon had been requested by fans years earlier. At the time, the ensemble was difficult to put together, as all three were at the peak of their respective careers. The fees were correspondingly high and the time limited.
Back then, Sly and Arnie were still rivals trying to outdo each other – at least when it came to muscular physique and the movies went on! Meanwhile, Bruce Willis had a slightly different career. In 1988 he celebrated his breakthrough with Die Hard. The John McClane he portrayed was a more sensitive character than Sly’s Rambo or Schwarzenegger’s Terminator. That was the cornerstone of why we saw Willis not only in action movies in the 90s, but in completely different genres as well. Movies like “The Sixth Sense” come to mind here.
“The Expendables”: a (short) top!
Today, all three actors have something in common: they enjoy absolute icon status among fans. In recent years, Sly and Schwarzenegger have slipped back into their cult roles. Stallone got a return in Rambo: Last Blood, Schwarzenegger got the credit in Terminator: Last Fate. Bruce Willis, on the other hand, managed to bring nostalgia to fans of the M. Night Shyamalan trilogy with “Glass”. In the meantime, he had to end his career due to health problems.
It’s a good thing that before that there was a meeting with Sly, Willis and Arnie that fans have longed for: in 2010, it finally happened in “The Expendables”. Even though it was just a short scene (which would go on for much longer in the second installment), we finally got our commitment in the tongue-in-cheek action blockbuster. This meeting of the giants was planned much earlier!
Sly has been cheated!
Have you ever met director Alan Smithee? Probably. It’s a fictional director who has to use his name when the real directors don’t want to be mentioned. These are usually films that artists do not want in their filmography. In 1998, “Hell Hollywood” was a comedy that brought up this phenomenon.
The film is about a director who wants to direct a high budget action movie. The finished work is so messed up in the studio editing that he wants to use the pseudonym “Alan Smithee”. Too bad his name is Alan Smithee! What sounds like a rarely idiotic plot is intended as a satire on studio films where creative direction is snatched from the actual artists.
The action trio in the Alan Smithee movie consists of Jackie Chan, Whoopi Goldberg and Sylvester Stallone. Actually, Arnie, Sly and Willis should take over the roles. In the end, however, only Sly could be tricked into participating by his agent. And with a nasty trick too! His agent had assured him that Willis and Schwarzenegger were already committed to the film. Stallone must have looked crazy when he found Jackie Chan and Whoopi Goldberg on set.
For the agent, there was a lot to be said for Stallone on Drive To Hell Hollywood. The film’s screenwriter was Joe Eszterhas, who also wrote the screenplay for Basic Instinct. He had the same agent as Sly and threatened to leave the agency if he didn’t get Stallone in the role.
It might be a bit of a shame that we never got to see Schwarzenegger, Willis, and Stallone together in this movie. But maybe it’s a good thing they saved their big clash. Considered one of the worst comedies of the ’90s, ‘Go To Hell Hollywood’ prompted Arthur Hiller, the film’s director, to use the alias Alan Smithee. How appropriate!