In a candid interview with Variety, actor Sly Stallone alluded to not being up to playing the role of John Rambo again. Even though, there’s been development on Rambo V: The Last Blood for years. It’s a bit odd considering all the praise he’s been getting for his return to the Rocky role in Creed, even well earned Oscar buzz for a supporting nomination.
It sounds like is that he’s not able to get the script in a position where it could surpass the last installment, and wants to leave the franchise on a high-note.
Here’s the excerpt from the interview from Variety.
Despite saying for years that he was working on a script for “Rambo V,” Sylvester Stallone revealed in a new interview with Variety that he has no intention of reprising his role as the iconic military war hero.
“The heart’s willing, but the body says, ‘Stay home!,’” Stallone, 69, explained in this week’s cover story. “It’s like fighters that go back for one last round and get clobbered. Leave it to someone else.”
Stallone noted that he was content with where 2008’s “Rambo IV” left the character, which he first played in 1982. “You know when you realize there’s nothing more to pull out?” Stallone says. “As an action film, I was very satisfied that it dealt with the Burmese situation. It had one foot in a current event, the longest civil war in history, 65 years at that time. It was so brutal, which civil war is, I was shocked they even gave me an R-rating. I didn’t want to compromise. I said, ‘This is probably going to be the last decent film of this genre that I’m going to do as a solo act.’ When that was accomplished, I never felt the same willingness to do it again.”
This conflicts what sites had been reporting in late 2014, with Stallone set to write, direct, and star in the film. It also seemed like production was coming very soon, I wonder what happened besides this creative conflict Sly is stating in this interview.
We know that he’s been working hard on grinding out a script for the film, and we’ve actually been looking forward to this ever since 2008’s John Rambo. One of the better action films of the decade, which he both wrote and directed, leading to the studio allowing him to make his Expendables trilogy.
At one point a version of the film was developed with the idea of soldiers spliced with animal DNA would be the focus. That would be eventually switched to Mexican Drug Cartels being the big threat of the film, while ISIS had been rumored for a very long time.
I feel like if they had indeed focused on ISIS and terrorists that might have been just as topical as the Burmese conflict.
You might remember that last year during the Creed press tour he was asked what other characters he’d like to pass the torch to, the one mentioned is John Rambo. Stating that he’d like to see Ryan Gosling in the role, which a lot of people were a bit puzzled about. I do think someone like Jake Gyllenhaal could be a better successor due to his more psychical roles.
One way they could go is recasting the character, which seems to be what Stallone is suggesting in these recent interviews, rather than a complete reboot. I’d wager audiences wouldn’t mind seeing him during the Vietnam War, or even a modern take tackling ISIS, something that Stallone was very cautious about doing.
I’m not entirely convinced Sly is completely done with the character, when he could still write and even direct another film.
SOURCE: VARIETY