Battlestar Galactica‘s Katee Sackhoff is set to join Haywire star Gina Carano in an all-female take on The Expendables from Dredd 3D producer Adi Shankar.
Speaking with Variety, Shankar said, “I don’t know how I’m supposed to make a movie that is supposed to be the female version of ‘The Expendables’ without Gina Carano in it. It would be like making Twix without caramel or Jamba Juice without jamba.”
Adding of Sackhoff, “If you spend five minutes with Katee it becomes blatantly obvious that she would pwn (sic) most male action stars.”
1984 Private Defense Contractors is producing the film, with plans to fully-finance the project. Variety also reports that the company is currently in talks with “several prominent actresses affiliated with the action genre.”
It’s unclear who exactly they’re going after, although a few names do come to mind such as Kate Beckinsale, Milla Jovovich, Sigourney Weaver, Linda Hamilton, Michelle Rodriguez, Uma Thurman, and Michelle Yeoh. Can you think of any others you’d like to see join?
Back in August, Dutch Southern (yes, real name) was hired to pen the script, which appears to be on the fast track towards production. Southern has a history with 1984 Private Defense Contractors, who acquired his 2010 Black List script Hoof Harrington’s Greatest Hits. Other than that, there aren’t any projects to his name, although these two should give him a big boost in Hollywood.
As Variety notes, 2012 has been an excellent year for female-driven action films, with films ranging from The Hunger Games and Snow White and the Huntsman to Haywire and the latest Resident Evil coming to mind. It’ll be interesting to see how a female-driven take on The Expendables will be able to offer something different, if at all.