Never say die. That appears to be the attitude for these old action stars. Most especially Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sly Stallone, although it’s hard to forget Bruce Willis and his constantly-reviving Die Hard franchise. After all, all three will apparently play significantly into the Expendables sequel. Schwarzenegger, currently shooting his comeback actioner The Last Stand for Kim Jee-Woon, is already prepped and ready for his follow-up, Black Sands, an action film that will be directed by Scott Waugh and Mike McCoy, the stuntmen-turned-filmmakers responsible for this.

The film, written by Skip Woods (the same man behind A Good Day To Die Hard), concerns “a loner who wages war against a ruthless weapons manufacturer and his private army in the Southwest” [Deadline]. Schwarzenegger will, of course, play the loner.

On the other side of pretty much the exact same coin, Stallone is reviving The Tomb at Summit Entertainment, a project that once had Antoine Fuqua and Bruce Willis attached, then Schwarzenegger considering for his return vehicle before choosing Lionsgate’s The Last Stand instead.

Stallone is now set and the project needs someone to direct the screenplay, written by Miles Chapman with a pass by Jason Keller.

The Tomb tells of Ray Breslin, a prison security mastermind who’s specialty in designing inescapable prisons is turned back on him when he gets trapped in a structure of his own design. That concept is so high my head hurts.

Randall Emmett and George Furla will produced under their Emmett/Furla Films banner, along with Mark Canton and Robbie Brenner. Summit are on-board as co-financiers, as well as owning the foreign rights to the property [Variety]. Stallone can next be seen in Walter Hill’s Bullet To The Head, from Warner Bros.

It would appear this trend of old-is-new-again homage-ish action films is not going away any time soon. Blame it on Jason Statham, who reminded enough movie-goers that if not enough tough-guy actors were young and available, the cheap cost of digital filmmaking, the poor political decisions of Governor Schwarzenegger and the apparently invincible sagging face and bald head of Stallone and Willis (respectively) would guide movie studios back into the forefront of sloppily-made, generally-offensive R-rated action schlock that many a drinking game would be invented to.

How do you like your action stars? Old and grizzled or new and shiny? Do you even feel you have a choice these days?