Forest Whitaker Eyes `Expendables` With Stallone

Forest Whitaker is negotiating to join the cast of the action film `The Expendables,` Stallone`s latest writing and directing effort.

Forest Whitaker is negotiating to join the cast of the action film "The Expendables," Stallone's latest writing and directing effort. Whitaker would play the CIA liaison for a group of mercenaries (played by Stallone, Jet Li, Randy Couture and Jason Statham) who are clandestinely sent to South America to overthrow a dictator.

Stallone, who expressed his intention to woo Whitaker in November, has been scouting locations for a February shoot. Reports about Stallone's pursuit of "Demolition Man" co-star Sandra Bullock amount to, according to a spokesperson for producer Nu Image/Millennium Films, merely wishful thinking for fans.

"Expendables" is the first project in Stallone's two-picture deal with Nu Image/Millennium. He last wrote and directed "Rambo," which mowed down $155 million in worldwide grosses.

Whitaker won an Oscar for playing Idi Amin in "The Last King of Scotland" and next appears in "Hurricane Season" and "Repossession Mambo."