For a hot minute, there have been plans to resurrect the “Rambo” franchise after star Sly Stallone retired from the action role with “Rambo: Last Blood,” with an origin movie in the works, and it’s now coming together as director Jalmari Helander (“Sisu”) is now attached to “John Rambo.”
The package deal is heading to the Cannes Film Market, according to an official update from Deadline, as Millennium Media, the folks behind “The Expendables” franchise and other R-rated action fare, is putting the new film together. It is said to be focusing on John Rambo’s missions during the Vietnam War, where the special forces soldier earned his reputation for being the hardest son-of-a-bitch by being tortured by the enemy and also executing multiple suicide missions for the U.S. military.
“Black Adam” screenwriters Rory Haines and Sohrab Noshirvani tackled the script with the aim of beginning production in Thailand this October.
“First Blood,” the original film based on the novel by David Morrell, focused on John Rambo being a transient veteran harassed by local small-town cops, only for the former soldier to break down and that turning the film into a compelling message about the mental toll of warfare, as Rambo is dealing with post-war PTSD.
The four sequels (James Cameron would end up co-writing the script for “First Blood Part II“) would focus on Rambo’s specific set of skills being used for impossible rescue missions, otherwise, he would be happy with his quiet, peaceful life of building Buddhist temples and collecting poisonous snakes. Rambo would end up heavily influencing not only the action film genre but would help the military sneaking genre of video games, most notably with Hideo Kojima‘s iconic “Metal Gear Solid.”
Producers on “John Rambo” are Kevin King-Templeton at Templeton Media, Les Weldon, Jonathan Yunger, and Avi Lerner. A group of executive producers includes Trevor Short and Bonfire Legends’ Dallas Sonnier and Amanda Presmyk.
An actor hasn’t been named to play the new John Rambo (we’ll have to wait for that update as casting is underway), but there have been suggestions in the past. Stallone once said he’d like to see Ryan Gosling in the part, and writer/director Quentin Tarantino mused about casting Adam Driver in a hypothetical remake of “First Blood.”
Millennium is also gearing up to release a reboot of their mature fantasy romp “Red Sonja” (the comic book heroine pal of “Conan The Barbarian“) that is expected to hit theaters later this year.
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
