When it was announced last week that Sylvester Stallone, Jet Li, and Jason Statham would star in a movie called “The Expendables,” my colleague Elisabeth Rappe wondered if it was the most ridiculously badass cast ever assembled.

You know who else wonders that? Jason Statham.

“It’s a great circle of people to be involved with,” Statham whistled. “Sly is someone I grew up watching on TV and on the movies. He’s a living legend. He’s one of the biggest action stars that Hollywood’s ever seen, the whole world’s ever seen. And so the chance for me to come all these years later and be working alongside Sly is just one of those like pinch-yourself moments.

“Rest assured,” that with that cast, “it’s going to be a kickass film,” Statham boasted.

How? Well, as to the particulars, Statham is remaining maddeningly coy, insisting that little beyond the initial tease – that the three play a team of mercenaries on a mission to overthrow a South American dictator – is set in stone.

And when the man actually writing the script is Stallone himself? Well, you don’t take chances, Statham said.

“It’s a little bit far away from talking about it,” the “Transporter” star insisted. “Sly’s working on the script right now so let’s wait and see how it comes back.”