Warner Bros. has planted its adaptation of DC/Vertigo’s The Losers in the April 2010 lineup. The film – about a black ops team that goes looking for revenge on the Agency that betrayed them – will be released in close proximity to Sylvester Stallone’s similarly-themed mercenary/revenge actioner, The Expendables.
Will this move by Warner Bros. put the two films on a collision path? Or is April 2010 just going to be one hell of a fun month for action fans?
Screen Rant has been covering The Losers for a hot minute, but so far reader interest has been lukewarm at best. So in case you’re hearing about the film for the first time, here’s a more detailed synopsis:
The Losers chronicles the story of a special forces unit tasked with waging the war on terror, who are ultimately betrayed by their handler, “Max,” and get left for dead. Of course they don’t die, but instead band together to get their revenge on Max, and also wipe their names and identities off a CIA “death list.”
So far casting news has included announcements that Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Watchmen) would be playing the role of Clay, leader of The Losers, and that Idris Elba (The Wire) and Zoe Saldana (Star Trek) are going to play Roque (The Losers’ money-hungry second-in-command) and Aisha (the livewire hothead) respectively.
Since those early announcements, The Losers‘ cast has grown to include Chris Evans (Push), Óscar Jaenada (Che) and Columbus Short (Stomp The Yard) as Losers, and Jason Patrick rumored to be playing the villainous Max. Sylvain White (Stomp The Yard) is directing.
The Losers is slated for an April 16, 2010 release – the same weekend as New Line’s Nightmare on Elm Street remake.
Yikes: being wedged between The Expendables (an action film boasting an ensemble cast of the genre’s biggest names) and Nightmare on Elm Street (a franchise that already has a large established fan base) is a potentially precarious place for a largely unknown property like The Losers.
One silver lining: The Losers will be the only big film offering moviegoers something new (the cast is still relatively unknown, as is the comic the film is adapted from). We’ve all seen Freddy Krueger do his thing before, and the same can be said about Stallone and the rest of The Expendables cast. And if that latter film ends up getting slapped with a PG-13 rating… Fuggetaboutit… The Losers might windup being a breakout hit. Guess we’ll know when we see a trailer.
