A film Sylvester Stallone once intended to headline, now has a new lead, Jason Statham.

"The Mechanic", a remake of the Charles Bronson classic, was originally on Sly's to-do list shortly after the release of "Rocky Balboa" in 2007.  Sly even went so far as to ask Aint it Cool News readers what they thought of the idea. Maybe it was the mixed response that scared Sly off the project?

Statham, currently filming "The Expendables" with Stallone, has teamed with director Simon West ("Con-Air") and producers Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff for the redo, says Variety.

It looks like the film will shoot in Louisiana, where NuImage/Millennium are building a new studio, and where Stallone's "The Expendables" will also lens when it finishes the Brazilian leg of its shoot.

In the original 1972 film, Bronson played a highly skilled -- and massively detached -- hitman who finds himself training the son of one of his victims.