There's a good reason why Sylvester Stallone not so subtly hinted that Bruce Willis was "greedy" and "lazy" for dropping out of The Expendables 3: the latter's $1 million-a-day fee for an extended cameo was outrageous.
A source close to the matter tells The Hollywood Reporter that the Rocky star, who created the aging action heroes franchise, was none too pleased that the Die Hard actor refused producers' offer of $3 million for four consecutive days of work on location in Bulgaria for the latest sequel.
"He said he'd drop out unless he got $4 million," the insider told the trade. "A million dollars a day. Stallone and everybody else involved said no."
Willis, of course, played Mr. Church in the first two films, the mystery man who sends Stallone's Barney Ross and his elite team of mercenaries out on various deadly missions.
When talks came to an impasse, however, on The Expendables 3, Sly and company apparently cut the cord with Willis, and Stallone took to Twitter to break the news to fans on Tuesday while simultaneously announcing Bruce's replacement.
"WILLIS OUT… HARRISON FORD IN !!!! GREAT NEWS !!!!! Been waiting years for this!!!!," Stallone wrote.
The 67-year-old actor then followed shortly thereafter with what looked to be a stinging aside revealing the reason for Willis' departure.
"GREEDY AND LAZY …… A SURE FORMULA FOR CAREER FAILURE," he tweeted.
Stallone's publicist later confirmed to The Huffington Post that the tweet was indeed made in reference to Willis.
Lucky for the production, the erstwhile Rambo had a certain guy known as Indiana Jones waiting in the wings who was eager to go along for the next ride.
"I think [Willis] was pretty surprised he was replaced in 72 hours by Harrison Ford—a better actor, a much nicer person and a more interesting direction for the film," the source added.
Ouch.
A rep for Willis declined to comment, while a rep for Nu Image and Millennium films, the studio behind The Expendables series, has not responded to E! News' inquiry about the situation.
But The Expendables 3 is sure shaping up to be a doozy of an ensemble cast. Along with Stallone and Ford are veterans from previous installments Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren and Mickey Rourke.
They'll be joined for this latest outing by Jackie Chan and Wesley Snipes, and if final negotiations pan out, possibly Nicolas Cage and Milla Jovovich as well.
Filming is set to begin later this month.