Rambo is coming out of hiding and looking for some fresh blood.
After a 17-year layoff, Sylvester Stallone is ready to reprise his role as everyone's favorite muscle-bound Green Beret for a fourth installment in the popular 1980s film franchise.
After protracted legal wrangling, the rights to Rambo were snapped up in 1997 by Miramax's genre division, Dimension Films. But a planned Rambo IV stalled. Now, with Miramax heads Harvey and Bob Weinstein exiting Disney, they have sold the sequel rights for the intrepid character to Nu Image/Millennium Films, and the project is finally moving forward.
In addition to breaking the old red bandanna out of mothballs, Stallone, 58, will write the screenplay.
"I've signed the deal and I have the old headband, machine gun and bow and arrow ready to go. I am looking forward to showing movie fans the real action hero again," Stallone said in a statement.
Stallone, who earned an Oscar nomination for writing the original Rocky and who has directed such flicks as Staying Alive and Rocky V, compared Rambo IV to such 1970's revenge classics as Straw Dogs and Deliverance.
The sequel opens with our brooding Vietnam vet finally settling down with a wife and child, while still working for the military. (Sadly, Richard Crenna, who costarred in the three previous installments as Rambo's longtime commander, Colonel Samuel Trautman, will be MIA from the new sequel, havingdied in 2003.)
Though he's "assimilated into the tapestry of America," workplace stress forces Rambo to leave the big city and move his family to the boonies. Their lives are upended however by white supremacists unhappy about a part-Navajo man moving into the area. When the racists take Rambo's 10-year-old daughter hostage, dad is forced back into action to rescue her.
According to Stallone, the new film will be similar in tone to the "character-driven" franchise-launching First Blood (1982), in which Rambo uses his battle-honed skills to get even with a small-town sheriff, as opposed to the more cartoonish action-packed sequels. Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985) was the blockbuster film of the series, featuring Rambo returned to Vietnam to rescue fellow POWs; 1988's Rambo III found our hero battling the Soviet army with the help of Afghan guerrillas.
If Rambo is able to tap into moviegoers' rah-rah nationalist fervor that made him so popular during Reaganmania of the '80s, Nu Image boss Avi Lerner promises more first blood adventures.
"It's a franchise," Lerner says. "If number four works, then you have a number five."
Thats not the only collaboration the company has with Stallone. Nu Image is also developing a Stallone script on the life of famed poet Edgar Allen Poe. Stallone also plans to direct the film. (Quoth the raven: "Yo!")
Stallone's recent stab at reality TV as cohost of NBC's The Contender wasn't successful, getting canceled after one lackluster season. He also has been working on a new Rocky installment, but that project hasn't managed to get off the drawing board. Now, he's hoping that revisiting Rambo will help resurrect his once mighty career.
Rambo IV is slated to start lensing in Sofia, Bulgaria in January before moving on to locations in India and the U.S. A release is being targeted for either late 2006 or early 2007.
Joined: Wed Mar 02, 2005 3:43 am Posts: 18418 Location: Anytown, USA Gender: Male
Ensign9 wrote:
:thumbsdown:
_________________
stip wrote:
In five years, when you get laid and grow up, you should go back and read some of these posts and if you've turned into a decent person you'll realize how much of an asshole you sound like right now
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 3:58 am Posts: 2105 Location: Austin
I'll take old burnt out Stallone playing Rambo anyday over the alternative. At least the chances of it getting remade using someone else are less probably in the near future.
Joined: Wed Mar 02, 2005 3:43 am Posts: 18418 Location: Anytown, USA Gender: Male
Iago wrote:
I saw Green Jelly's Three Little Pigs video today.
That was Rambo's best appearance.
(Anyone here remember that little gem?)
not by the hair on my chinny chin chin.
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stip wrote:
In five years, when you get laid and grow up, you should go back and read some of these posts and if you've turned into a decent person you'll realize how much of an asshole you sound like right now
He needs to stop the Rocky series and Rambo series where they are and not do any more.
Exactly. He single-handedly won the Cold War by beating the Russians in the last movie in each series. He beat the Russians in Afghanistan in Rambo 3, and KO'd Drago and won over the hearts of millions in Rocky IV.
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 5:02 am Posts: 3279 Location: Department K, North of 60
Three Little Pigs
by Green Jelly
(Watch for the Rambo appearance below)
Why don't you, sit right back,
and I, I may tell you, a tale.
A tale of three, little pigs,
and a BIG, BAD, WOLFFF.
Well the first little piggy, well he was kinda hip.
He spent most of his days, just a dreamin of the city.
And then one day, he bought a guitar.
He moved to Hollywood, to become a star.
But, living on the farm, he knew nothing of the city.
Built his house out of straw, what a pity.
And then one day, jammin on some chords,
along came the wolf, knocking on his door.
(Chorus)
Little Pig, Little Pig, let me in.
NOT BY THE HAIR OF MY CHINNY, CHIN, CHIN!!
Little Pig, Little Pig, let me in.
NOT BY THE HAIR OF MY CHINNY, CHIN, CHIN!!
Well I'm huffin, I'm puffin, I'll blow your house in.
Huffin, puffin, blow your house in.
Huffin, puffin, blow your house in.
Huffin and a puffin and I'll blow your house in!!!
Well the second little piggy, well he was kinda stoked.
He spent most of his time just a ganga smokin.
Huffin and a puffin down on Venice Beach.
Getting paid money for religious speech.
He built his shelter from what he garbage picked.
Mostly made up of old cans and sticks.
Then one day he was cranking out Bob Marley,
and along came the Wolf on his big bad Harley.
(Chorus)
Well the third little piggy, the grade A student.
His daddy was a rock star, named Pig Nugent.
Earned his Masters Degree, from Harvard College.
Built his house from his architect knowledge.
A tri-level mansion, Hollywood Hills.
Daddy's rock stardom, paid for the bills.
And then one day came the old house smasher
the BIG BAD WOLF THE LITTLE PIGGY SLASHER.
(Chorus)
Well the big bad Wolf,
well he huffed, and he puffed, all that he could.
And low and behold the little piggy's house stood.
"IT'S MADE OUT OF CONCRETE!" the little piggy shouted.
The wolf just frowned, as he pouted.
So they called nine-eleven, like any piggy would.
The sent out RAMBO, just as fast, as they could.
(Rambo)
"YO, WOLF-FACE, I'M YOUR WORST NIGHTMARE, YOUR ASS IS MINE!!!"
(gunshots)
Well the wolf fell dead as you can plainly see.
So thats to end the story, for you and me.
If you still give a listen, you just may, here a big wolf or little piggy
say.
(Chorus [a little different] )
" And the moral of the story is, ' A band with no talent can easily amuse
idiots, with a stupid, puppet show."
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 3:58 am Posts: 2105 Location: Austin
Knight Rider wrote:
Jim wrote:
He needs to stop the Rocky series and Rambo series where they are and not do any more.
Exactly. He single-handedly won the Cold War by beating the Russians in the last movie in each series. He beat the Russians in Afghanistan in Rambo 3, and KO'd Drago and won over the hearts of millions in Rocky IV.
But why? If he fixed these problems, why not take on world hunger and AIDS in his next two films. From what you said, he is the greatest humanatarian in history. He is getting a bit old now, we should support his ability to solve complicated world problems through film while he still lives.
Joined: Wed Mar 02, 2005 3:43 am Posts: 18418 Location: Anytown, USA Gender: Male
Iago wrote:
Three Little Pigs
by Green Jelly
(Watch for the Rambo appearance below)
i still have the original single for that when the band was still called "Green Jello".
_________________
stip wrote:
In five years, when you get laid and grow up, you should go back and read some of these posts and if you've turned into a decent person you'll realize how much of an asshole you sound like right now
He needs to stop the Rocky series and Rambo series where they are and not do any more.
Exactly. He single-handedly won the Cold War by beating the Russians in the last movie in each series. He beat the Russians in Afghanistan in Rambo 3, and KO'd Drago and won over the hearts of millions in Rocky IV.
But why? If he fixed these problems, why not take on world hunger and AIDS in his next two films. From what you said, he is the greatest humanatarian in history. He is getting a bit old now, we should support his ability to solve complicated world problems through film while he still lives.
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