Starring Hollywood stars like Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Jason Statham, The Expendables has been among some of the most popular action thriller franchises in the industry. The trilogy was introduced with the 2010 movie, which features a cameo of The Sixth Sense star. The actor was reportedly very excited about his cameo as it would feature him along with Stallone and Schwarzenegger on screen for the first time.
Followed by his brief appearance in the first film, he was given an expanded role in the sequel as Mr. Church, which went on to gross over $300 million at the box office. Willis was also set to reprise his role in The Expendables threequel before the payment conflicts arose between the actor and the producers of the film, and he was later replaced with the Indiana Jones star Harrison Ford.
Sylvester Stallone Denied Bruce Willis’ Payment Demand
Followed by the huge success of The Expendables 2, Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, and Jason Statham were set to reprise their respective roles in the threequel. Despite being one of the most intriguing characters in the film series, the CIA operative Mr. Church was not seen in The Expendables threequel.
Later reports revealed the reason behind the Assassin star’s departure from the franchise. As per The Hollywood Reporter, the actor left the third film after some conflicts over his payment for the film. Willis was reportedly offered $3 million for filming consecutively for four days in Bulgaria.
While he was offered a 750,000 salary per day, Willis demanded $1 million per day instead. Sources close to the production revealed, “He said he’d drop out unless he got $4 million.” However, producers and the Rocky star refused to accept his demand, leading the Die Hard actor to say goodbye to the series.
After this, Stallone reached out to Harrison Ford to replace Willis’ character with a new character named Drummer. Ford received an estimated $6.9 million, about $4 million more than what Willis was offered and almost $3 million more than what he demanded for the film. And the Rambo star went on to attack his fellow actor on Twitter as he announced Ford’s casting in The Expendables 3.
Sylvester Stallone Called Bruce Willis Greedy And Lazy
With Bruce Willis’ departure from The Expendables 3, Sylvester Stallone took to Twitter to happily announce the new cast member of the film. He shared a tweet saying that he has been waiting to share the screen with Harrison Ford for years. His tweet said, “WILLIS OUT… HARRISON FORD IN !!!! GREAT NEWS !!!!! Been waiting years for this!!!!”
However, he did not stop simply by declaring that the Pulp Fiction actor would not be reprising his role. In a follow-up tweet, he hinted at the reason for his exit from the threequel as he seemingly called Bruce Willis greedy and lazy, pointing out that these are the reasons behind one’s career failure.
The Expendables film series is available on Prime Video.
Source: IMDb
