{TB EXCLUSIVE} Naomi Watts In, Kate Beckinsale In Talks For “Expendabelles”

 EXCLUSIVE
 〉Watts set to join the Expendables spin-off, with Beckinsale in talks and other offers out.

Naomi Watts is attached to star, with Kate Beckinsale in talks for the lead role, for EXPENDABELLES. The female-driven Expendables spin-off will follow group of female spies who are tasked with rescuing a weapons engineer, taken hostage by a decadent, womanizing Indonesian Sultan.

Watts is attached to star as Nancy, a guns and munitions specialist who lives a cookie-cutter soccer-mom life in LA,  keeping her profession a secret from her family. Beckinsale is in negotiations to star as Tegan, the film’s lead,  an ex-CIA operative and mercenary who assembles and leads the team on their mission.

I’m also hearing that offers have been made to Mila Kunis for a major role. Offers are still out to Transformers: Age of Extinction actress Li Bingbing and Marcia Gay Harden. Watts, Bingbing, Harden’s involvement was revealed when the Tracking Board broke the exclusive news in November.

Sylvester Stallone and Bruce Willis are set to reprise their roles from the Expendables series, confirming that both series will exist in the same shared universe. Robert Luketic will direct, from a script written by Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith. Stallone is producing alongside Avi Lerner, Heidi Jo Markel, Julie Kroll, and Trevor Short.

Cameron Diaz, Mila Jovovich, Sigourney Weaver, Chris Evans, Alan Rickman, and Meryl Streep have all at one point been rumored to star, or received offers to appear in the film.

Watts most recently starred in St. Vincent, opposite Bill Murray, and in major Oscar contender Birdman, opposite Michael Keaton. Up next, she’s set to appear in The Divergent Series: Insurgent, Sea of Trees, and While We’re Young, opposite Ben Stiller and Adam Driver.

Beckinsale’s recent studio projects include Total Recall and Underworld: Awakening. She’ll next star in Terry Jones’ Absolutely Anything and in The Face of an Angel, alongside Daniel Bruhl.

Watts is repped by CAA and Untitled Entertainment in the U.S.

Beckinsale is repped by UTA and Media Talent Group.

—TO SEE ALL THE PROJECT DETAILS CLICK HERE— 

Clark Allen | Staff Writer