There’s going to be more blood…
Director of The Iceman Aril Vromen is set to helm a reboot of the Rambo franchise without Sylvester Stallone’s involvement. Based on a script by Brooks McLaren the new movie will reportedly see a younger, buffer actor in the titular role of John Rambo; the one-man-killing-machine whose wardrobe consists of black vests or nothing. Apparently production company Millennium Films see Rambo as a James Bond-like character that can be inhabited by various actors, adding a new survival skill to the characters’ repertoire: shape-shifting. To fully embrace this bold, new direction the reboot is tentatively titled Rambo:New Blood (get it?).
Rambo isn’t the first of Stallone’s franchises to see a younger star take the lead. 2015’s Creed acted as a spin-off/soft reboot of the Rocky series, shifting focus from Stallone’s Rocky Balboa to the younger Adonis Johnson portrayed by Michael B Jordan.
Released in 1982 and based on the novel by David Morreli, Rambo: First Blood introduced the world to John Rambo; a troubled Vietnam War veteran with a berserker rage. The first movie follows Rambo to the town of Hope, Washington where he tried to settle down after wandering the country for the last decade. That didn’t go to plan with the Sheriff took an instant dislike to him, and soon enough Rambo was being beaten-up by deputies which didn’t end too well for them. From there Rambo found himself on the run, hiding in the forest and dispatching the broken bodies of law enforcement officers left, right, and centre. That was Rambo’s first time leading a Scout camp, he wasn’t invited to give it another go.
The sequels upped the stakes and became more and more over the top (even for action films), in First Blood Part II Rambo returned to Vietnam to rescue POWs still in captivity; where he encountered betrayal that sent him up against the Soviets alone. Rambo III saw the gun-toting veteran continue his career as a rescuer, venturing to Afghanistan to liberate an old army buddy. In Stallone’s final outing as the character, simply titled Rambo; the titular hero tries his hand at being a tour guide, leading a band of humanitarians through Burma and fighting pirates.
A few years ago, a fifth Rambo movie was rumoured to be in the works which would have taken the one-man-army away from war zones and into Mexico on the trail of a missing girl; exchanging bullets with human traffickers and drug lords. It’s not known whether that plot will be recycled for the reboot or for another project, if at all. But whatever New Blood looks like expect: guns, sweat, pecs, and the arrival of helicopters to be signaled by rousing music.
Cast and story details are yet to be announced.
