Stallone chooses director for "Expendables 3"

Patrick Hughes

Sly Stallone finally got the Aussie director he wanted, sort of. Stallone teased recently about bringing Mel Gibson on board to direct the third installment of his Geritol/HGH franchise but in the end he went with Patrick Hughes. Hughes came to light with his debut "Red Hill" which impressed a lot of industry types but didn't make much noise at the box office.

While I'm sure Hughes will be able to handle the project one has to wonder exactly what happened to Mel. If I had to guess the notion of having Stallone hanging over your shoulder 24/7 during production questioning everything you do wasn't a prospect an accomplished director like Gibson could stomach. Though that's speculation on my part. Perhaps he just didn't want to do it or had a scheduling conflict or maybe Stallone himself was just jerking everyone around with the Gibson tease, trying to generate buzz for his project.

Whatever the reason it's Patrick Hughes for E3. We wish him well.