Anything The Expendables Can Do, The ExpendaBelles Can Do Better?

The appeal of The Expendables evaporated at the snap of a finger when The Expendables 2 opened. Everyone seemed in on the joke the second time (Sylvester Stallone's 2010 original played straight outta 1988 without irony or fun). The action was better. Jean-Claude Van Damme was a better villain than Eric Roberts. They had more Bruce and Willis. For God’s sake, Chuck Norris MADE A CHUCK NORRIS JOKE!

Folks, though, got their fill of retro-over-muscled 80s badasses. The better film it may be, The Expendables 2 under-performed stateside. Is that it? Doubtful (Foreign grosses improved). But for the moment, Millennium Films is going for their answer to the Chipettes – The ExpendaBelles.

Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith, who wrote good female-geared fare like 10 Things I Hate About You (or as my old high-school teacher called it, "The Best Teen Movie John Hughes Never Wrote") and Elle Enchanted and crap like She's the Man and Katherine Heigl's failed vehicles The Ugly Truth and One for the Money, are on scripting duties.

They've already exhausted the concept for old-school male stars. Is going to the female-equivalent too niche? Maybe if Expendables 2 did the business it should have, this would be a better idea than it really is.