Sylvester Stallone is revisiting two characters who’ve played important roles in helping to build up his acting resume. Stallone stepped back into the ring for Rocky Balboa, the fifth film of the Rocky franchise which hit theaters on December 20, 2006. And the 60-year-old actor is also ready to take on the role of John J Rambo one more time.
While doing publicity for Rocky Balboa, Stallone answered a few questions about what fans can expect from the next Rambo film - the fourth film of the series. Stallone wrote the screenplay for Rambo IV: Pearl of the Cobra* (as he did for all the Rambo movies) with production expected to start sometime in January 2007. This upcoming Rambo movie marks the first film of the franchise that Stallone will direct.
Although Stallone’s willing to revisit Rambo and Rocky, don’t expect to see a Tango and Cash 2. Stallone doesn’t believe he’ll be doing any other sequels anytime soon. “No, that would be it because Rambo’s a character that I think was not fully expressed in the last one,” explained Stallone. “Even though Afghanistan was the downfall, it was Russia’s Vietnam. What happened was it was about 10 days before the movie came out, Gorbachev comes over and basically kisses Nancy Reagan on the cheek and the Cold War, 50 years later, is over and now I’m the bad guy. It’s true. ‘Why are you a red-bater?’ I said, ‘Two weeks ago we were dropping bombs on these guys.’ So anytime you do a film that deals with a political subject, you don’t know - even though I’m doing it again. It’s extremely volatile.
But, yeah it would just be Rambo because it’s a character I think that is completely out of sync with the way things are. He’s so primitive and he’s so broken, his spirit, that he lives this monastic life out on the jungle. I think it’s an interesting character study. I haven’t seen anything like it lately.”
Some have called Rambo IV a veteran’s journey but Stallone doesn’t see this Rambo film that way. “I wouldn’t say this is a veteran’s journey. It’s more like the veteran mentality of the Vietnam War, which is juxtaposition today. The soldiers today I think are vastly different - a different breed. I think they’re a little bit more aware. The other guys are a bit more naïve, and they went headlong into these crazy situations. Look at the death toll of 52,000, and by today’s standards that’s unbelievable. A quarter of a million suicides after that from people who were damaged by the war. It’s just in his attitude and his demeanor that you know he’s still quite distraught by what he’s been though, but yet he can’t escape it. [He’s] damned if he does and he’s damned if he doesn’t.”
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* Pearl of the Cobra was renamed Rambo and will hit theaters on January 25, 2008.
