With the third Expendables film set to hit theatres mid-August, Sylvester Stallone is already lining up his next project. The New York Post were first to scoop with the news that Stallone will reunite with producer Irwin Winkler (Rocky) to portray former mob hitman Gregory Scarpa.
Scarpa was a career criminal and mob enforcer for the Colombo family, turned FBI informant. The film will focus on his involvement in the “Mississippi Burning” case which he helped solve by allegedly pistol whipping and kidnapping a member of the Klu Klux Klan in 1964. After pleading guilty to three murders in 1993, Scarpa later died of complications from AIDS in 1994.
The film will be scripted by Mob film specialist Nicholas Pileggi (Goodfellas, Casino) and directed by Brad Furman (The Lincoln Lawyer, Runner Runner). All under the roof of Avi Lerner and Millennium Films who have a solid history with Stallone now.
Outside of his franchises such as Rocky, Rambo and now The Expendables, Stallone has struggled to find box-office success with his other films in recent years, with the likes of Bullet to the Head and Grudge Match bombing at the box office. Scarpa could well allow Sly a change of direction, moving away from money spinners and an attempt, much like Copland in 1997, to find more critical approval. With as good a screenwriter as you can hope for in this genre and a solid director this has potential to remind the world that Sly can really act. Count me in…
Originally published July 9, 2014. Updated April 15, 2018.
