SAN DIEGO — It started with chants of “Rocky, Rocky,” and ended with Sylvester Stallone accepting accolades Thursday from the Guinness Book of World Records for creating the most successful sports franchise in film history: Rocky.
Stallone and a cast of tough guys came to Comic-Con to present their new movie, The Expendables.
Steve Austin, Terry Crews, Randy Couture and Dolph Lundgren appeared alongside Stallone, the film’s writer, director and star.
As Crews was introduced, he unbuttoned his shirt and made his pec muscles dance. He later did the same with his biceps.
The former football star described the film as “the manliest movie ever made” in which the actors did their own stunts and the fight scenes were real.
Austin broke Stallone’s neck during one scene, sending the star to the hospital for surgery.
Lundgren, who sent Stallone into intensive care when they made Rocky IV together, said he was thrilled to work with the filmmaker again and be part of such a big, tough cast.
“It was a great experience for me,” he said, “one that only comes along once in your career.”
Stallone said he had planned to retire after concluding his Rocky franchise with 2006’s Rocky Balboa.
But after the success of that film, and Rambo, which followed, he said he “got greedy again” and wrote The Expendables, which opens next month.
Comic-Con continues through Sunday at the San Diego Convention Center.
It’s a celebration of comic books, pulp fiction heros, and the movies they inspired, and attracts thousands of guests, many dressed up as their favourite characters.
Robert Rodriguez loves Comic-Con, but the San Diego Convention Center is just too limiting. So the filmmaker decided to unveil his new movie, Machete, on a street corner instead.
Rodriguez showed about seven minutes of footage from the film at an outdoor party Thursday night that featured free tacos and margaritas, scantily clad dancers, a dozen tricked-out low-rider cars and a graffiti wall.
Stars Danny Trejo and Michelle Rodriguez were on hand for the celebration. The film also stars Robert De Niro, Jessica Alba, Steven Segal, Don Johnson and Lindsay Lohan.
The seven-minute clip was sexy, bloody and action-packed. In one scene, Alba puts out an attacker’s eye with a stiletto heel. In another, Trejo’s character slices open an opponent’s stomach and rappels down a wall with his intestine.
“The human intestine is 10 times longer than the human body,” Robert Rodriguez said. “True fact.”
The film focuses on Trejo’s character, Machete, a renegade who’s fighting against corruption in the United States and Mexico. Robert Rodriguez wrote the part for Trejo, his first starring role in a 25-year career.
“No matter where you go, there’s always going to be corruption,” Robert Rodriguez said. “So you almost have to create this superhero that can solve a problem that we find unsolvable ourselves.”
“This is the first Latino superhero,” said Michelle Rodriguez, who sports an eye patch in Machete.
Machete opens in September.
In another event, before Joss Whedon and J.J. Abrams got too deep into a discussion about pop culture, Whedon confirmed some major Marvel news: He’s directing The Avengers.
He made the announcement Thursday at Comic-Con, San Diego’s annual pop-culture convention.
In a panel moderated by Jeff Jensen of Entertainment Weekly, Abrams and Whedon discussed the future of 3-D, the viability of the Internet as a vehicle for original programming and what they love about comics, sci-fi and making movies.
Whedon says he’s working on the outline for the Avengers script.
Abrams says he’ll start shooting his new film, Super 8, in September.