Get your bandanas out one more time because John Rambo is coming back to the big screen. Several Hollywood trade publications are reporting that Millennium Media, the company behind “The Expendables” and “Olympus Has Fallen” franchises, is currently at the ongoing Cannes Film Festival market shopping a new film detailing John Rambo’s early days. Yes, we are getting a Rambo origin film.
Jalmari Helander, the director of the Swedish World War II action film “Sisu” is attached to direct, with Rory Haines and Sohrab Noshirvani (“Black Adam”) writing the screenplay. Right now the production company is at Cannes Market, essentially the largest cinema conference, looking to secure distribution and funding for the movie, tentatively titled “John Rambo.”
Details on the actual plot are slim, but given the premise, the movie would likely be set during the Vietnam War itself, with Rambo and his fellow Green Berets going through hell in the jungle. Col. Trautman, the man who “made” Rambo, is almost certainly going to appear. There are plenty of moments to draw from, both from David Morrell’s 1972 novel “First Blood” and vignettes teased in the past five Rambo movies. Audiences might finally see Rambo truly yearn to be back at Fort Bragg, or more seriously, some of the harrowing and tragic events he recounts back in “First Blood.”
Trade reports out of Cannes say that casting for “John Rambo” is in its early stages, but no one has been confirmed yet. Someone new will be putting on the bandana and wielding an almost comically large knife in this film. As for the cinematic John Rambo himself, Sylvester Stallone, Deadline reports that he is not personally involved in this new Rambo film. Given the film’s premise and timeline, it’s unlikely Stallone, 78, would prominently be on screen for it.
There’s a chance this could go nowhere. After “Rambo III” there were several false starts, discarded ideas and several failed attempts at bringing the traumatized Green Beret back before Stallone put on the bandana once more in 2008’s “Rambo.” Even the story’s finale, “Rambo: Last Blood” had some odd development turns — Rambo was going to fight a genetically engineered creature at one point.
But this seems more tangible than some of those past efforts. “Sisu” was a solid action film with plenty of grit and gore, a delightful showcase of Nazis getting slaughtered. And it did well enough, and Helander’s action chops were well established that a sequel is out later this year. If there is going to be another Rambo film, this isn’t the worst option. And there almost certainly was going to be another Rambo film. Rambo is an iconic IP. And in Hollywood when it comes to IP, nothing is over. Nothing.
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