Nov 30, 2021
Video From Shah
Here's a video from Shah from the set of EX4, she's dressed in a military outfit. Currently the following cast is filming in Bulgaria: Lundgren, Couture, Jaa, Uwais, Tran, 50 Cent & Shah. Haven't seen news from Garcia or Scipio. Production wraps at the end of this week.
Nov 28, 2021
Sheila Shah Arrives In Bulgaria
Sheila Shah has also arrived in Bulgaria flying in from North America (since she's Canadian not sure whether she flew in from there or the US). Given that she only joins production for one week her role is probably minor in EX4. In the early draft of the script there was a female CIA agent character (in addition to Gracia's), and she could be playing in that role.
THE EXPENDABLES GO TO HELL comic is finally here!
Just received my THE EXPENDABLES GO TO HELL comic. It was an Indiegogo crowdfunding project, was co-written by Sly himself, and is awesome!
Nov 27, 2021
Uwais Travelling to Bulgaria
Uwais is also traveling to Bulgaria today to shoot extra scenes there. It's probably scenes with Lundgren & Couture since those 2 will be on set in Bulgaria as well.
Video Message From Lundgren
A video from Lundgren, wrapping things up in Greece and preparing to travel to Bulgaria next week to shoot some more scenes. Production will warp at the end of next week.
Nov 25, 2021
Set Videos
A couple of videos shot around the set of EX4. Looks like a few of the villains are driving around.
Nov 24, 2021
Couture Filming For Another 10 Days
His character was Initially thought to be killed in EX4 in the opening scene, Couture is still filming for another 10 days! He seems to be an integral part of the movie actually. Statham already left production 5 days ago. Couture is staying longer in Greece to shoot scenes with Lundgren who arrived much later on set, and then moving to Bulgaria together for a week to finish things off.
This movie is starting to look like a piecemeal. Sly shot his scenes almost 2 months ago in London with the new Expendables team. It's more and more looking like that Sly actually and somehow plays a role in the final scene that has being shooting in Greece. Production moving back to Bulgaria to shoot scenes with Lundgren & Couture, a lot of back and forth going on.
Nov 23, 2021
Nov 22, 2021
Nov 21, 2021
Nov 20, 2021
Nov 19, 2021
Statham Done Filming
Today was Statham's last day filming EX4 according to the movie's PA. Production must be starting to wrap within the next week or so as it was initially announced.
Nov 18, 2021
The EX4 Logo
This EX4 logo seems to be the one production has gone for. We'll see if it stays the same or gets changed in post-production.
Sly's Message From Production Set
Sly has recorded a message from the set of EX4 for Juliens Auctions. This seems to be from the scenes that we saw photos of early on when he was filming with Statham.
Jaa Expendable?
A new photo was posted by Scipio on IG, and Jaa seems to be part of the Expendables team this time?!
Nov 17, 2021
EX5 Dead Already!?
EX3: From Script to Screen
I thought this was an interesting article by The Action Elite on how the early version of EX3 script was originally quite different from the final product and not written as a PG-13 movie.
Here's a list of highlighted differences:
- The opening train scene takes place at night but aside from that it’s always been pretty much the same.
- Hale Caesar is killed by Conrad Stonebanks rather than injured. This works much better dramatically and makes you feel that lives actually are at stake. Apparently the only reason Caesar lived is because Terry Crews loved playing the character so much.
- Church was originally in the script and would later be replaced by Drummer (Harrison Ford). His dialogue is different and it’s him in the chopper at the end with Trench and Yin Yang.
- When Sly was trying to get Jackie Chan on board, his character was called 3D and was a bit of an Asian stereotype so it’s no wonder he declined. The character would be rewritten to become Galgo ( Antonio Banderas); both characters would end up being the annoying comic relief guy with similar scenes although 3D was slightly less annoying. He has an argument with Gunnar about chopsticks of all things which was quite lame. His confession as to what happened to his unit remains pretty much the same though. He had what sounded like a pretty epic fight scene at the end which could have been something special.
- Luna (Ronda Rousey) is introduced in a different fashion with Barney protesting having a woman onboard. This makes him come across as more of a dinosaur and I’m glad they changed it.
- Luna ends up getting tortured a little more by Stonebanks when the Young Expendables are captured later in the story.
- Smilee’s (Kellan Lutz) story is a little different where he is discovered working on a farm rather than having fistfights for money.
- Christmas’s girlfriend Lacey has a small role and tries flirting with one of the crew and it’s a shame she was removed as it would have kept up the continuity. When the Expendables are broken up we get a scene with Christmas sitting with Lacey and some friends having dinner demonstrating how he just isn’t cut out for the civilian life.
- Toll Road also nearly loses his shit while buying groceries which was also changed in the final film.
- All of the stuff about keeping Stonebanks alive and taken to The Hague is not in this version and it flows a little better. There is still not enough motivation to him though and he was always an underdeveloped villain.
- When Stonebanks escapes from the van and Barney has fallen off the bridge into the water, he is saved by Trench who kills Conrad’s goons. It gives him a bit more to do in the film rather than just flying the helicopter all the time.
- The much talked about axe scene starts off with Christmas (Statham) fighting the henchman Krug in a vicious knifefight; when Krug gets the upper hand and is about to kill Christmas The Surgeon (Wesley Snipes) runs in and throws the axe to Christmas. He then cuts Krug in half which certainly would have given the film an R rating.
- There appears to be a lot more blood and guts in this version so the final film was certainly toned down.
- When Yang, Trench and Church arrive in the helicopter during the finale Yang originally got to have an epic one on one fight which could have been pretty satisfying, so it’s another case of Jet Li being left out (most likely due to his poor health in all fairness).
- Stonebanks’ death was more brutal too rather than him getting shot (booooring!), Barney picks up a piece of rebar with fifty pounds of concrete at the end of it and crushes Stonebank’s skull. For the life of me I don’t know why THAT was removed!!
- But that’s not the end; Barney then takes out his knife and cuts off Stonebanks’ Expendables tattoo from his skin and tosses the flesh away.
Dolph Lundgren lands in Greece with fiancée Emma Krokdal
Nov 16, 2021
Nov 15, 2021
Lundgren Off To Greece For EX4
There was a lot of debate on whether Lundgren would also join the Expendables gang in Greece to shoot some of the final scenes. Well, he's confirmed on his IG that he'll be leaving London tomorrow for Greece to shoot EX4.
Nov 13, 2021
Script Snapshot of Uwais' Copy
Here's a snapshot of the script from Uwais' copy. The movie is called "The Expendables 4", there is no mention of the tagline "A Christmas Story", at least for now. You can also note that the 1st draft was ready in September 2019 already. Since the fallout between Sly & Avi, the intention has always been to reboot the franchise with a new generation of Expendables led by Statham as the main character.
Nov 12, 2021
Set Photo - Jaa
A new photo of Jaa on set was posted today on IG by someone who works in the movie. He also worked in Greece before with Banderas on a movie called The Enforcer also produced by Millennium. Apparently the successful production of The Enforcer led Millennium to shoot EX4 in Greece.
Scipio Is Expendable
Nov 11, 2021
Randy Still In Production?
Nov 10, 2021
Nov 9, 2021
Nov 8, 2021
50 Cent on set
50 Cent or whatever his name is, has posted a couple of photos of himself from the EX4 set. The comments he posted are usual him with this arrogant sense of humor he has ("Yo this is my Movie everybody else just in it.").
I'm one of those fans who's not happy to see him in the movie, but I'm not the producer so will have to suck it up.