Basically, the tease offers a scene of Bruce Willis explaining to Stallone why he’s about to be thrown back into the fray. Then, it’s a laundry list of the action heroes Stallone has recruited for the sequel – Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jet Li, Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, Terry Crews, Chuck Norris, Jean-Claude Van Damme (!!) — and pictures of all of them holding massive guns.

You need more than that?

Then you’ll have to wait until next summer, when “The Expendables 2” opens. Here’s the teaser. The sequel, directed by Simon West, opens in theaters on Aug. 17.

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Sources from the companies declined comment on the story.

This isn’t the first time that the studios have discussed a merger. And various stories detailing the potential merger this time out have also suggested that other small-to-medium-sized studios (that have opted to remain anonymous at this point) could also join the company to expand the new company’s reach.

Experts tell The Wrap that the merger between the two companies is “long overdue.” Each bring something unique to the table. Summit has been in the distribution game since 2007, and is coming off of the massive hit “Breaking Dawn, Part 1.” Lionsgate, meanwhile, has had success in the television field as well as in film, distributing Sylvester Stallone’s surprise hit “The Expendables” as well as Tyler Perry’s filmography.

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A stuntman has been killed in a sequence for “The Expendables 2,” while another has been badly injured, according to Deadline.

The stunt, on the movie’s Bulgaria set, involved an explosion that took one man’s life and sent the other to a local hospital. According to the site, Stallone and his director, Simon West, were in a separate location miles away filming a different scene. Area officials were launching an investigation into the explosion.

“It is with great regret that we confirm this unfortunate accident,” Nu Image/Millennium Films said in a statement. “Our hearts go out to the families and those on the production affected by this tragedy. The filmmakers are working closely with the authorities in responding to and investigating this accident.”

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This time, it’s Stallone’s action ensemble “The Expendables” that’s being sued for similarities to a short story and screenplay titled “The Cordoba Caper” that was penned by Marcus Webb back in 2006. In a lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court, according to Reuters, Webb says his script tells “the story of a team of elite, highly trained mercenaries hired to defeat General Garza, a rogue army general of a small Latin American country.”

Sounds like Stallone’s film. The “Expendables” villain, played by David Zayas, even went by the name General Garza. That can’t be good for Sly.

“There can be no dispute that Stallone and/or [screenwriter David] Callaham had access to and copied protectable elements of the screenplay,” the lawsuit says.

But can it be proven in a court of law? “The Expendables” isn’t “Inception,” which works from a truly original premise. It’s meat-and-potatoes action, and the concepts – while similar – could have come from any source. Yet Webb wants compensation, and he’d like to block Stallone’s planned “Expendables” sequel until the matter is ironed out.

Stallone’s reps declined comment on the issue.

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HollywoodNews.com: For all intents and purposes, Jason Statham has been an action star since 2002, when Fox released the Luc Besson-produced The Transporter. Yes, more hardened film fans knew him from his Guy Ritchie work and from his supporting role in The One (a Jet Li vehicle from late 2001, the first of three times he would spar with Jet Li onscreen).

But for general moviegoers and action junkies, Statham was introduced as Frank Martin eleven years ago as of October 11th. In that time, Statham has arguably become the king of an all-but vanished genre. He is basically the last action hero, the lone movie star known primarily for kicking ass in a non-fantasy and non-period setting. But nine years is a long time to toil in the underbelly of grind house B-movie cinema. He’s had the occasional high-end picture (The Bank Job), supporting roles in A-level studio thrillers (The Bank Job) and flirtations with the big time (playing the second lead in The Expendables). But nine years since he literally kicked down the door to stardom, Jason Statham remains pretty much where he started.

So why hasn’t the biggest pure action star of his generation eventually found his way to bigger and better things? Call it bad timing, or the misfortune of being a star in the wrong era. Just as George Reeves became a television star at just the wrong time (after the studio contract era but before the ‘playing against type is cool’ era), Jason Statham is an action star in a time when pure action pictures are all-but extinct. He is a B-movie action star in an age where A-movie action pictures more or less don’t get made anymore.

In the 1980s, Arnold Schwarzenegger could move from B-movies like The Running Man, Raw Deal, Red Heat, and Commando to more A-level features like Predator and finally Total Recall in 1990. Steven Seagal could go from Hard to Kill or Marked For Death to something like Under Siege. But big-budget, R-rated, non-fantasy action pictures are more-or-less extinct in the post-Columbine era. As I’ve noted before (HERE), the post-Columbine crackdown on marketing to younger audiences have all-but completely put the kibosh on big-budget, R-rated action pictures. There really isn’t a bigger, more ‘mainstream’ action vehicle for Statham to graduate to. Studios don’t make A-level action thrillers anymore.

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Willis smirked his way through an amusing cameo with his Planet Hollywood partners Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger in “The Expendables.” And now he appears ready to join a campy action franchise as its pioneering hero.

Willis is “in talks” to play the original Joe in Paramount’s planned G.I. Joe sequel, “Retaliation,” THR reports. John M. Chu, who helmed “Justin Bieber: Never Say Never,” will direct the sequel that’s also bringing Dwayne Johnson, Adrianne Palicki, Ray Stevenson and RZA into the fold.

“Willis, if a deal comes together, would play General Joe Colton, the man who in 1980s comic books starts the G.I. Joe strike team, called the ultimate freedom fighting force, and got the handle G.I. Joe.,” the trade reports.

The first “Joe,” subtitled “The Rise of Cobra,” was a modest hit for the studio in 2009, earning $302 million worldwide. The sequel reportedly begins shooting later this month in New Orleans, with an eye on a June 29, 2012 release date.

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HollywoodNews.com: As expected, Paramount was the first to blink this afternoon, moving Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol away from its December 16th release date where it would have gone head-to-head with Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows and Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked. The Brad Bird-directed sequel will now open five days later, on Wednesday, December 21st. Unfortunately, instead of facing one major would-be blockbuster, it now faces several. Opening on the same day or two days later are The Adventures of Tintin, The Darkest Hour, We Bought A Zoo, and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. The Tom Cruise/Jeremy Renner vehicle very well may win that long Christmas weekend and benefit from those famous year-end legs. But there was another even more prime release date with absolutely no competition whatsoever.

Since Star Trek 2 is basically in development hell, there was a completely empty release slot on June 29th. However, instead of slotting the fourth Mission: Impossible film in the heart of summer, they have instead moved GI Joe 2: Retaliation (the slimmed down and allegedly grittier sequel to GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra) into the June 29th slot. GI Joe: Retaliation was slotted to open unopposed on August 10th, 2012. Yes, Lionsgate is opening The Expendables 2 just one week later, and perhaps Paramount was worried about demo overkill. But GI Joe 2 will surely be PG-13 while The Expendables 2 will likely be R-rated. First of all, GI Joe 2′s second weekend would have been the perfect alibi for youngsters wanting to sneak into the R-rated Sly Stallone/Jason Statham sequel. Second of all, it’s not like anyone was expecting the second GI Joe sequel to have anything resembling legs.

One weekend was all it needed, which is what it had and still has now. But by giving GI Joe: Retaliation the mid-summer slot, Paramount has sacrificed the fourth Mission: Impossible film to the insane overcrowding that is the last few weeks of 2011. If I were Paramount, I would have kept GI Joe 2 right where it was, on nearly the same weekend where the first film opened with $54 million two years ago. And I would have moved Mission: Impossible IV to the empty June 29th slot (that likely would have made JJ Abrams happy, which would have been a pleasant bonus). So what call would you have made in this high-stakes game of franchise musical chairs?

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Because it already has been announced (and even has a release date), most probably assumed that an “Expendables” sequel was next on Sylvester Stallone’s to-do list. But before he gets the old band back together (pun intended), it sounds like Sly’s going to sneak in a second project for producer Joel Silver.

That would be “Bullet to the Head,” an adaptation of a cult-fave graphic novel that Walter Hill will direct. The project, at one point, was known as “Headshot,” and casts Stallone as a New Orleans hitman who teams with a New York cop so both men can avenge the murders of their respective partners.

Empire says “Bullet” will film in Louisiana later this month, with Sung Kang of “Fast Five” co-starring. I wonder if that means Stallone will move right to “Expendables 2” after “Bullet” … and who will direct that sequel if and when it happens?

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And while the sequel has an August 2012 release date, not a lot of movement has happened regarding a second “Expendables.” Stallone has said he’s not directing. Brice Willis has been rumored to be the main villain in the movie. Other than that? Bupkus.

But FirstShowing, which is reporting from Cannes, has posted an image of posters teasing the second “Expendables,” so it’s still in the making. Unless this is fan made … but that’s unlikely.

“It’s just an early tease and isn’t much besides an updated design, but I thought this was worth sharing with everyone,” Alex at FS writes. We agree, and so here it is:

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The sequel, which has writers but no director (yet), will arrive in theaters on Aug. 17, 2012. The bulk of the cast is expected to return, though Stallone has said he will not direct this time out. No idea why. In fact, if I were placing a bet, I’d say Sly is back behind the camera by the time “Expendables 2” begins to shoot.

As for now, story details are being kept under wraps. The rumors had Bruce Willis’ “Expendables” character returning in a larger, villainous role, though at this stage, it’s all guesses, and anything is possible.

The first “Expendables” earned nearly $275 million at the global box office, so a sequel was inevitable. We’ll see what Stallone and crew can come up with.

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