Donnie Yen to kick butt in The Expendbles 2?

When Sylvester Stallone first started hyping the sequel to his geriatric action flick, The Expendables, he said he wanted it to be "a love letter to martial arts". Curious then, that some reports have the only actual martial artist on the team, Jet Li, not coming back. Perhaps he grew tired of being the only guy other than Statham who can roll out of bed in the morning without hearing their back wimper in despair. Li is no spring chicken, but by comparison to the crippled yaks like Dolph Lundgren and Mickey Rourke, he's greased lightning.

So with Li's presence still up in the air, this latest bit of news coming from Twitch could prove very interesting. They caught on to some info in the Oriental Daily which notes that Hong Kong superstar Donnie Yen has been approached about a role tailor made for him in the sequel. While others may lok at Tony Jaa as the greatest film martial artist working right now, it's pretty clear in my mind that Yen is the man to beat. Yen has been force on the scene since the 1980s, working alongside some of the greats like Jackie Chan, Jet Li, and Michelle Yeoh. He didn't really become much of a known commodity here in the States until 2002-2003 when he co-starred in a trio of well-received flicks: Blade 2, Hero, and Shanghai Knights. He's since gone on to greater fame, especially with his amazing Ip Man flicks.

Yen is only 48 years old, which would make him like an adolescent on the Expendables set. My hope is that we'd get to see him do battle either with Li or Jason Statham, probably the only two who could keep up.  Yen's reps confirm he's been made an offer, but no decision will be made until a script has been completed.

Simon West has taken over the directing reins from Stallone this time, thank goodness, with David Agosto and Ken Kaufman working on that script Yen better love. The gang is gearing up for an August 17th 2012 release date, with possible new faces including Jean-Claude Van Damme, Chuck Norris, and John Travolta.