Did Sylvester Stallone Swipe 'The Expendables?'

Sylvester Stallone and “The Expendables” co-writer David Callaham will face some accusations that Stallone’s ode to action stars past and present looks a little too much like another writer’s baby.

The Hollywood Reporter reports that screenwriter Marcus Webb has filed a suit seeking unspecified damages and a court-ordered block on 2012’s “The Expendables 2” infringing further upon his story.

Webb believes Stallone’s film too closely mirrors his “The Cordoba Caper” set-up’s villain, mercenary plot and even opening sequence for the similarities to be coincidental.

Webb made the Hollywood rounds shopping his script from 2006 to 2009, creating the possibility that Stallone and Callaham may have indeed seen it somewhere. “There can be no dispute that Stallone and/or Callaham had access to and copied protectable elements of the screenplay,” the suit claims. Callaham submitted the script in June 2006 to the U.S.  Copyright Office.

The suit also names as co-defendants Millennium Films, Nu Image Films and Lions Gate Studios.

It’s the second recent instance in which “The Expendables” has been the subject of a lawsuit. This past August, Nu Image voluntarily dismissed a suit against 23,322 parties that allegedly pirated the film. Nevertheless, Nu Image still plans on re-filing copyright infringement claims against thousands of illegal downloaders spanning the United States.

Theoretically, there should certainly be the funds available to settle the suit peaceably. “The Expendables" grossed over $274 million worldwide following its summer 2010 release. The sequel will star, to name a few, Stallone, Bruce Willis, Jet Li, Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren and Chuck Norris.