Couture-Nogueira test run?
By Loretta Hunt (lhunt@sherdog.com)
Scott Doctor/Splash News
Will Couture get a test run?
Sunday, 12:10 a.m. ET: If Sylvester Stallone has his way,
Randy Couture and
Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira will lay hands on each other long before they enter the Octagon.
The legendary couple is slated to face one another in a heavyweightcontest at UFC 102 on Aug. 29 in Portland, Ore. But before fans see theformer UFC champion and his Pride counterpart come to blows, Stallonemight orchestrate a test run in his new film “
The Expendables,” currently shooting in Brazil.
Couture -- a budding thespian who’s had roles in “
The Scorpion King 2”and the CBS military series “The Unit” -- plays “Toll Road,” one offive mercenaries sent to South America to overthrow a dictatoralongside action movie staples Jet Li, Jason Statham, and Stallone, whoalso directs.
Nogueira, and his twin brother Rogerio, also play soldiers in the flick.
Couture finished his initial scenes in Brazil this week, where the45-year-old’s rigorous training schedule evidently came in handy.
“We shot from 5 p.m. to 5 a.m., and I was so jacked up,”Couture told Sherdog.com. “I never felt tired and had to wind down foran hour or so before I could go to sleep.”
Couture is on a two-week hiatus until May 10, when reunites with theteam in New Orleans to continue shooting for the adrenaline-lacedblockbuster. Select scenes have been re-scheduled to go down in the BigEasy due to inclement weather and production issues in Brazil.
As for working with the big screen’s original underdog?
“Sly was very intense, but also very in tune with the otheractors and what needed to come across in the scenes,” said Couture.“Shooting went great.”
“The Expendables” is scheduled to swoop into theatres in April 2010.