‘Rambo: Last Stand’ Is Scripted; May Resemble ‘Unforgiven’ In Tone
Right after the release ofRambo, the fourth film to featureSylvester Stallone’s iconic Vietnam War veteran character, it seemed like a fifth film was a foregone conclusion. Last year, however, the writer/actor/directorreversed his position, saying ““I think Rambo’s pretty well done. I don’t think there’ll be any more.” It seems like he was concerned about appearances more than the lack of a compelling story. “For Rambo to go on another adventure might be, I think, misinterpreted as a mercenary gesture and not necessary. I don’t want that to happen…I’m very happy with the last Burmese episode, because I didn’t pull any punches on it.”
But nowSean Hood, theConan the Barbarianscreenwriter, says he’s met with Stallone a couple times over the last year, and has completed a draft of a script calledRambo: Last Stand.
The story starts with an interviewFEARnetdid with Sean Hood, who offered up,
I recently finished a first draft of Rambo: Last Stand (Rambo 5) for Millennium films, based on a story idea by Sylvester Stallone. Hopefully, Mr. Stallone will eventually have the time and the inclination to do another Rambo.
ThenEmpiretalked to the screenwriter, who gave them a few more details:
I met with Mr Stallone twice last year […] He gave me a book, an older screenplay, and about twenty pages he’d written himself to use as inspiration for the last chapter of the Rambo saga.
We don' t know what the book was, but Empire does say that the current script isn’t based on any of the ideas that have been reported in the past couple years. So it isn’t a Mexican/South Americanactioner featuring a drug cartel, or thesci-fi-likeSavage Huntstory.
But there’s a little more info:
It’s more in line with the small-town thriller of First Blood. […] As of now, I don’t know whether Mr Stallone will actually do it. Right now, as I understand it, he has his hands full with Bullet to the Head and Expendables 2. But Millennium films did hire me to complete the screenplay and realise his story, and my hope is that he’ll eventually be inspired to do one more Rambo film, with the tone of Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven.
I’m an unabashed fan ofFirst Blood. (Seriously; it’s a good film, full stop.) So if there’s going to be a fifth film, I’d love to see the story come full circle back to aFirst Blood-type tale, especially if it could have the elegiac tone of Unforgiven. There’s not much in the splatter-ificRamboto suggest that movie would work, but if someone other than Stallone directs, I’d like to see where the project goes.
