When one reasonably good idea starts making the rounds in Hollywood, replicas are sure to follow. About a year ago we learned that Millennium Films, the studio behind The Expendables, was planning a female spinoff film potentially titled The Expendabelles, shortly after 1984 Defense Contractors began developing their own action flick led by an all-girl cast. Well now producer Avi Lerner has revealed who they're targeting to be the first Expendabelles, and he's aiming extremely high.
While talking to Bulgarian site Standart, Lerner says he's talking to Meryl Streep, Cameron Diaz, and Milla Jojovich to lead the film. He's also quoted as saying...
"The action movie will be spectacular – and in nothing inferior to the three male movies of the "The Expendables." There will be battles, special and visual effects and stunts - the spectacle will be equivalent to what Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jason Statham, Harrison Ford, Mel Gibson, Bruce Willis and Jean Claude van Damme have done ... Two excellent screenwriters are already working on the picture. Now we are in search of a female director."
The writers he's speaking of are Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith, who penned Legally Blonde, 10 Things I Hate About You, The House Bunny, and Katherine Heigl flicks The Ugly Truth and One for the Money. So female-centric movies are their thing, and it's probably a smart idea to go full board and hire a woman director.
Diaz starred in a pair of blockbuster Charlie's Angels movies, and Jojovich (who was rumored for The Expendables 3 at one point) has Resident Evil so they have extensive experience in the genre. You'd have to go back to The River Wild to find anything similar for Streep, but does anyone think she couldn't kick some butt nowadays if she wanted to? If Helen Mirren can do it, so can she.
We won't hear anything concrete until a director is found so stay tuned, and expect to hear other big names circling this film as well.
