14 DAY TRIAL // A third “Expendables” movie is now in the works, but so are two different, all-female versions of Sylvester Stallone’s original idea. For “ExpendaBelles,” producer and Millennium Films chief Avi Lerner is negotiating with Oscar-winning actress Meryl Streep for one of the leads.
Deadline reports that Lerner broke the news in an interview with a newspaper from Bulgaria, where the film will shoot in its entirety.
He’s also said that Cameron Diaz and Milla Jovovich are also in talks for appearances. The latter is one of the most obvious choices for this type of role, given her experience and obvious passion for action movies.
However, Streep’s association with the project is as surprising as it’s a potentially winning one. Perhaps the actress is taking a page out of Dame Helen Mirren’s book, who played a retired hit woman in “Red” and this year’s “Red 2” and went on the record saying she had a blast during the shoot.
For the record, Deadline doesn’t even consider the possibility that Lerner is lying about the contract negotiations, so there must be some truth to this.