Director wants Sean Connery for ‘The Expendables 3’

Director Simon West wants to tempt the Bond icon out of retirement for the next action sequel

The Expendables 2 director Simon West has revealed that he wants Sean Connery to appear in the next sequel.

West took over the director’s chair from Sylvester Stallone, who helmed the first Expendables movie as well as co-writing the screenplay and heading up the cast. The original film, which also starred Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jet Li and Dolph Lundgren, became an unexpected hit at the box office, grossing more than $274 million (£174 million) worldwide in 2010.

The Expendables 2, which reunites the original cast and adds Jean-Claude Van Damme to the muscle-bound mix, opened in cinemas last Friday (August 17) – scroll down to watch the trailer. Recalling work on the sequel, director West admitted that the size and stature of the cast sometimes made shooting difficult. He explained: “That was very interesting because they’re not used to having shots quite so wide, but I had to fit in all these big stars and I wanted to shoot them all together instead of just lots of single shots. They weren’t used to sharing the screen with so many other big stars, so that was tough for them sometimes.”

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Meanwhile, series producer Avi Lerner is already hatching plans for a third Expendables movie. Last week (August 14), he revealed that Nicolas Cage will join the cast for the next instalment, while Clint Eastwood and Harrison Ford are also in talks to appear.

When asked which action star appears on his Expendables 3 wish list, West told the PA: “I don’t know who’s left. Sean Connery would be great to bring back from retirement. I don’t know if he wants to do it, but I’d love to have Sean Connery.”

Connery, 81, made his last screen appearance in 2003’s The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen, although he has since taken on occasional voice work. In May (2012), he made his first public appearance in over two years when he rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange.

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