Two years ago when the first Expendables movie came out, I thought to myself, "why don't they make a female version of the hit machismo film, which stars Sylvester Stallone and just about every 80's action star that I grew up with in the 80's and 90's?" Then Screen Rant would up doing an article on their dream team of female stars who would be great in a all-girl Expendables film, and it got me thinking of a dream team of my own.
I think what the female version will have to focus on is the emotional core of the action universe, instead of what macho films rely on too often and that's blowing shit up and cutting people's throats to solve a problem. What I loved about Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games is that during some of the heartfelt scenes where she had to do what she had to do to survive, you felt for her emotionally throughout the film and you rooted for her to win the games. It's also why people love shows like Homeland, Game of Thrones, True Blood, The Walking Dead and even the hit cartoon Brave. People love seeing strong women getting the job done. It also helps that women are becoming a much more powerful force when it comes to corporate jobs, media, and the recent presidency.
I loved the fun one-liners in The Expendables, but that can't be all you focus on when you make a female version. It will also suck if they relied on all the ladies to be provocatively sexy and sedictive as the only way to get the 18-34 year-old crowd to pay $15.00 at the theater. What I loved about Christopher Nolan's version of Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises is that she didn't rely on being a sex kitten to get what she needed out of people. She knew when to turn on the charm to get what she wanted out of powerful men, but she also wasn't afraid to kick your ass when you stepped out of line.
That is what we need in the Expenda-Belles movie. We need that balance. Hopefully with Executive producer Adi Shankar (who gave us must-see macho films such as Machine Gun Preacher, Dredd 3D, and the hit internet short Punisher: Dirty Laundry) and writer Dutch Southern on board, we will have a movie that will show Hollywood that there is an audience (both male and female) out there that wants to see hot chicks kicking ass and taking names.
The writer(s) will have to figure out where they will fit each person, but my dream team of action heroines I would like to see in the film are: Sigourney Weaver, Linda Hamilton, Helen Mirren, Milla Jovovich, Zoe Bell, Angelina Jolie, Michelle Rodriguez, Uma Thurman, Kelly Hu, Summer Glau, Cynthia Rothrock, Kate Beckinsale, Vivica A. Fox, Charlize Theron, Lucy Liu, Eliza Dushku, Rhona Mitra (who I think should be considered as the new Lara Croft if they ever decide to reboot the franchise), Gina Carano (who was the best thing in Haywire and also stars in the upcoming Fast 6), Michelle Yeoh, Jessica Biel, Carrie-Ann Moss, Zoe Saldana, Ziyi Zhang, and the villainess can be either Sharon Stone, Lucy Lawless or Pam Grier.
I would also love to see Maggie Q in this film, but I know when you've got a busy 22-episode schedule on an action-packed show like Nikita it might be hard to steal her away to be in such an ensemble film. Mirren, who I loved in RED (I got slightly turned on watching an old lady fire automatic weapons at the bad guys) would make a great M-like character.
Now if we're talking about actual actresses who do their own fight stunts, my (narrowed-down) choices as the Expenda-Belles would be: Sigourney, Milla, Michelle Rodriguez, Michelle Yeoh, Gina Carano, Uma, Zoe Bell, Vivica, Angelina, Linda Hamilton, Cynthia, Carrie-Ann, Maggie Q, Jennifer Garner (who did most of her fight scenes in Alias and Electra), and Lucy Liu. The villains stay the same.
Who do you guys think you would like to see in this film? Sound off in the comments section.
No comments:
Post a Comment