The Difference Between McTiernan And Stallone

It seems that John McTiernan’s next movie, Red Squad, is still facing difficulties.  Production company Hannibal Classics had, up until recently, stated that filming would begin in Biloxi Mississippi this August.  I think for a movie that doesn’t even have a cast yet, we can disregard that one right off the bat.  Nicolas Cage was previously attached and was due to be announced at Cannes (where we were told by a studio rep that the entire cast would also be revealed), but pulled out hours before the announcement.

No reason was given for his departure.

As for McTiernan himself, he told Empire Magazine earlier this year that he rejected the script at least once, calling one draft “ridiculous”.  But probably more revealing, John is scheduled to appear at the 40th Deauvile American Film Festival, in France, this September.  This has nothing to do with Red Squad or even Hannibal Classics, who will be at the Toronto Film festival around the same time.  So that means that McTiernan will not be in North America shooting a movie.  This is bad news, I’m guessing John could use the work as his home is facing foreclosure.  But it also shows the character of the man.  Even after being financially destroyed, he won’t make a bad movie.

Which leads me to the point of this article.  What a difference there is between Sylvester Stallone and John McTiernan.  While McTiernan is standing his ground (in every way imaginable), Stallone is cutting quite a few corners on The Expendables 3.  PG-13, despite the previous movie performing strongly at the box office.  100 minutes or so, despite the size of the cast, simply because a shorter movie gets played more often during the day.  Stallone will also take a big payday for the movie.   He took at least $10 million for The Expendables 2.  If he really cared about quality, he’d take a cut on that in order to keep it R or, shocking as it might seem, hire a young actor people actually recognise instead of nobodies.  Had he taken a paycut, axed Rousey, Lutz and Ortiz, he might just have scored a currently trending action star, just one.

One would’ve done it.  And don’t tell me these things are out of Stallone’s hands.  He has the power to say no, he has the power to veto.  John McTiernan has taught us this.

So for the people on Twitter and elsewhere telling us to go see The Expendables 3, to support “our heroes”, even if it means accepting compromise for the sake of greed, think again.  The McTiernan/Red Squad situation is in such contrast to that.  John McTiernan has proven that he deserves more support than anybody, even Mel Gibson (who can handle his own as we know).  Pity Stallone doesn’t fill the same shoes, sorry, but calling it like it is.