Sylvester Stallone isn’t messing around when it comes to his new cash cow “The Expendables”. With the sequel scheduled to make some serious cash at the box office late this summer, Stallone and company are looking to line their pockets with the sort of money only numerous explosions, high body counts, and heavy machine guns fire can generate. When screenwriter Marcus Webb concluded that Stallone and co-writer David Callaham’s script was a little too close to his thriller “The Cordoba Caper”, Stallone’s (legal) army embarked on a mission to clear his name. Unfortunately, the only bombshells dropped were in a court of law.
According to Webb, his would-be blockbuster revolves around the exploits some highly-trained mercenaries who spend a large portion of the picture kicking a wide variety of cinematic behind. The screenwriter claims that “The Expendables” even ripped off the opening sequence and the villain, allegations which Stallone has vehemently denied.
Unfortunately for Webb, the lawsuit was drop-kicked out of court on summary judgment on Monday. Stallone’s lawyers filed the motion to dismiss based on the fact that Callaham had already delivered a number of drafts for “The Expendables” before Webb had even penned his own potential masterpiece. Furthermore, the budding screenwriter has no way of proving that Stallone or Callaham had seen Webb’s script, which had apparently been shopped around to various studios over the past ten years.
As a result, Judge Jed Rakoff deemed the the lawsuit baseless. Millennium Films, Nu Image Films and Lions Gate were also counted as co-defendants in the case.
This, of course, is good news for Stallone and company, who won’t have to part with any of that sweet, sweet action money. The sequel to “The Expendables”, which stars Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Terry Crews, Mickey Rourke, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, Bruce Willis, Randy Couture, Liam Hemsworth, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Scott Adkins, and Chuck Norris, opens in theaters on August 17th.
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