One of the actor's iconic roles was born when he played a former Green Beret who returned from Vietnam. The film, directed by Ted Kotcheff, saw the actor eventually wield what was said to be a M60 machine gun.
One-man army John Rambo is poised for a return to the big screen.
Nu Image/Millennium Films is plotting a reboot of the classic 1980s action franchise that starred Sylvester Stallone, tapping Brooks McLaren to pen the script and Ariel Vromen to direct the feature.
Titled Rambo: New Blood, the new reboot would not see Stallone return as the action hero, as he did in Millennium’s 2008 outing, but would see a younger actor inhabit the role. The company is looking at Rambo as a character akin to James Bond.
Rambo was the lead character in a 1972 novel by David Morrell titled First Blood. Hollywood adapted the book into the hit 1982 movie that starred Stallone in a story that despite its action trappings looked at issues facing disaffected Vietnam War vets. (It also veered from the book by having its protagonist live at the end of the story.)
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When the series returned, with 1985’s Rambo: First Blood Part II, it was tapping into go-go 1980s America, with a script co-written by James Cameron. It was a pure high-adrenaline action movie with Rambo getting revenge, star-and-stripes style, on the Vietnamese. Stallone was at a zenith, the movie was unbeatable at the box office and the character entered pop culture’s list of cinematic icons.
Rambo III, released in 1988, suffered a drop in quality and box office, and the character was dormant until Stallone resuscitated him for 2008’s Rambo.
No plot details were given for the new film, as the project is still in early development.
McLaren has been working steadily in the action sphere since writing How It Ends, a post-apocalyptic survival tale which was on the 2010 Black List. Among his projects is Line of Sight, an action thriller which Ben Affleck is developing for Warner Bros. McLaren is repped by Verve and Brillstein Entertainment Partners.
Vromen is a Millennium favorite, having directed The Iceman, the 2012 crime drama that starred Michael Shannon and Winona Ryder, and Criminal, a Ryan Reynolds-Gal Gadot thriller released this year, for the company. He is repped by WME, LBI Entertainment and Marks Law Group.
