Reading the crew list, it feels like you’re strolling down the “action-adventure” aisle at Blockbuster: Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Steve Austin and on and on. But on the set of the currently-filming flick “The Expendables,” nobody is as pumped-up as Terry Crews.
“It is the first time you have all these stars in one flick,” Crews told us recently, just before leaving for Brazil to shoot the film. “There is going to be a cameo by Arnold Schwarzenegger, Dolph Lungren is coming back. Stallone is directing it, writing it. It is awesome, man. I am just privileged and honored to be a part of it, and I am telling you it is going to be great.”
“We are basically a group of guys who are trying to free this country from this South American dictator,” the former “Idiocracy” president told us of the film’s plot. “And it is all blood and guts. It’s the he-manness of everything!”
Yes, that’s right – the burly star just coined a word based on “He-Man.” And to hear him tell it, this is going to be the manliest flick ever made – in fact, there are barely going to be any women glimpsed on screen.
“Very few,” he laughed, perhaps sounding the death-knoll for recently-cast Brittany Murphy. “And the ones there are, we shoot them. There are a lot of women getting shot in this flick.”
“You remember in ‘Predator,’ where it had all the guys in it?” he said, comparing the film’s macho set to a Schwarzenegger classic. “This flick has Randy Coutore, the mixed-martial artist in it. I mean dude, it can’t get more bad-ass than this. It is impossible!”
Crews told us that a cast like “Expendables” could only unite for a legend like Stallone. “He lets everybody create their own character; he just gives you the template,” explained the actor. “He was like ‘Dude your character, Hale Caesar, I want you to make it. I want you to give him his background. I want you to give him what he is.’ I’m studying [weaponry] and going forward in it and I am loving it…There are a lot of big personalities, big egos in this thing, but it is great. I think it’s going to be wonderful for the fans.”
As for his character, Crews revealed: “I’m the weapons expert. I play a guy named Hale Caesar, and I am all about my weapons.” With a grin, he added: “I’ve got special bullets for your ass.”
Which men on a mission flick are you most eager to see: “The Expendables” or “Inglourious Basterds”?
