John Rambo is bound for the big screen once more only this time, a new actor (actress?) will be filling the role made famous by Sylvester Stallone.
It’ll be titled Rambo: New Blood and will, according to The Hollywood Reporter, be directed by Ariel Vromen. Brooks McLaren (How It Ends) has been tapped to flesh out a screenplay, with the idea being that Nu Image/Millennium Films are treating Rambo “as a character akin to James Bond.” As such, expect a younger actor to take up arms as the troubled Vietnam War veteran turned one man army.
A surprise hit from the get-go, Rambo was initially adapted from David Morrell’s novel First Blood. Its success spawned three more movies, the most recent of which releasing in 2008 when Stallone once again took point as the title lead. This latest interpretation will not only mark the first Rambo film to movie forward without Stallone, but it also suggests that previous plans to spin out a live-action TV series – one which the action veteran had been attached to – have been resigned to the shelf.
As this franchise revival is still so early on in development, there’s zero mention of plot details. However that may be, Rambo: First Blood isn’t the only example of Hollywood clamouring for the action heroes of yesteryear. Elsewhere, there’s also Die Hard: Year One, a back-to-basics actioner set to chronicle the early career of one John McClane. Last year also heralded the release of Creed, which took the Rocky format and crafted a sequel that both respected Stallone’s legacy and stood on its own two feet as a damn fine boxing movie. Can First Blood achieve a similar feat? Time will tell.
