You knew it had to happen eventually, right? That somebody would dig up the Rambo character to make a buck in the era of the WOT? Considering that Rambo III was set in Afghanistan during the resistance to the Soviet Invasion? I saw this immediately and got nervous. The first thing I thought was 'please God, tell me the War on Terror isn't going to get the Rambo III treatment. Please.' Nope. But it still sounds like a bad TV movie cliche.
Alpha1Media Press Release May 30th
Nu Image-Millennium Films begins `Rambo IV' in 2006 London, England (28 May, 2005) - `Rambo IV' begins preliminary shooting in Bulgaria in January 2006, as Nu Image-Millennium Films acquire film rights from Miramax-Dimension Films.
Sylvester Stallone, the Italian-American film actor who played the titular role in the `Rambo' film trilogy, signed with Nu Image-Millennium Films to begin `Rambo IV' in May 2005, stating that the production company had optioned a book for the new `Rambo', for which he has adapted a complete script, likening it to vengeance films like `Deliverance' and `Straw Dogs'. According to Stallone, the new plotline sees the character of Rambo as having "assimilated into the tapestry of America", living with his family in relative peace for the past fifteen years but still working for the military, when work pressures force him to move his family to the American outback. The Navajo-Indian former Green Beret and his family are then subject to an attack by white-supremacists, and Rambo has to risk life-and-limb in rescuing his 10-year old daughter from being held hostage. Commentators have noted that the premise of the film is similar to one touted by Stallone in 1997, following the Oklahoma bombings, and comparisons have been drawn with the US federal government's attack at Ruby Ridge in 1991, including the role played by former Green Beret Colonel James "Bo" Gritz.
I don't really think the world needs another round of Rambo movies... but if somebody is going to get greedy and grind one out... at least it isn't about a lone 50-plus year old John Rambo waging a one man rightwing counterinsurgency to the radical Islamic insurgency responding to the Bush fiction-inspired occupation of Iraq.
Could Commando II: Venezuela Boogaloo be far behind considering what the GOP thinks of Chavez, and with Arnie not doing so hot in Cali anymore, he might be available. Who knows?
Rambo IV