Stallone to direct and co-star with Jason Statham and Jet Li in Expendables

Some blogs are already calling this potentially the best hardcore action film ever. After seeing what Sylvester Stallone did with the latest Rambo film, I must agree. Variety reports that Stallone is set to star in and helm the film The Expendables for Nu Image/Millennium Films, which he also worked with on the Rambo film.

Stallone also wrote the script for The Expendables, and will co-star with Jason Statham. The legendary Jet Li is in negotiations to join the action movie as well.

The film follows a team of mercenaries on a mission to overthrow a South American dictator. Filming is scheduled to start in February in Costa Rica and Louisiana.

Until this project happens, Jason Statham is back as Frank Martin in Transporter 3, which hits theaters on November 26th 2008. He’s also filming Crank 2: High Voltage, due in theaters on April 17, 2009, and recently signed on for 13, a remake of French crime thriller 13 Tzameti. The busy actor is also scheduled to return as Handsome Rob in The Brazilian Job, the sequel to The Italian Job.

Jet Li has a project making festival rounds called The Warlords, a period piece in which he plays an Imperial General, in a tale of three blood brothers and their struggle in the midst of war and political upheaval.