You saw them punch each other senseless in Sylvester Stallone's 1985 drama ROCKY IV, and blow a bunch of shit up alongside their action star brethren in THE EXPENDABLES franchise, and now Dolph Lundgren and Sylvester Stallone are reuniting for an action drama series.
The project, which hails from Tony Krantz's Flame Ventures, stars Lundren with Stallone serving as an executive producer. According to sources, the high-profile project was sold at all three broadcast networks that it was pitched to this week – Fox, CBS and NBC. Streamers the likes of Netflix and Apple were also eager to snag a piece of the action.
Penned by Ken Sanzel (THE REPLACEMENT KILLERS, NUMBERS), Lundgren will play a covert operative at the Department of Safety and Security at the U.N. He is described as U.N’s secret special agent, a one-man S.W.A.T. team and hostage negotiator.
In addition to writing the script, Sanzel will also act as showrunner for the pilot episode, which Stallone could direct. Joining Stallone as an executive producer on the project is his Balboa Productions partner, Braden Aftergood. Meanwhile, Lundgren's manager, Craig Baumgarten will also executive produce via Zero Gravity.
As you're likely to know, Stallone and Lundgren have been bicep buddies for decades. The pair clashed as part of ROCKY IV, which saw Stallone's Italian Stallion, Rocky Balboa, squaring off against Lundgren's Russian powerhouse Ivan Drago. The two touched gloves once again for CREED II, a sequel that pitted Michael B. Jordan's Adonis Creed against Drago's son, Victor Drago (Florian Munteanu). Oh, but the action doesn't stop there, my friends. Lundgren was also recruited as a part of Stallone's THE EXPENDABLES series, a balls-to-the-wall action vehicle featuring many of Hollywood's heaviest hitters from across the action genre.
With star power such as this, it should come as no surprise that networks are willing to go to the mats for a chance to land the duo's television project. We'll be sure to keep you up to date with any further developments for this promising endeavor.