Sylvester Stallone reached out to Oscar winning actor Forest Whitaker to be a part of his latest writing and directing project The Expendables.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Whitaker is supposed to 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. Their team is "expendable," hired to do jobs that no one else can or will.

The Expendables is Stallone's first of two projects in his deal with Nu Image/Millennium. Filming starts in February in Costa Rica and Louisiana.

Stallone's last project Rambo IV earned 155 million worldwide.