With his major triumph in Rocky 6, it’s no surprise to learn that Sylvester Stallone has just signed a new 2 film deal to both direct and star in new action films. This is great news to me, as Stallone has proved that he isn’t done yet as an action star… he’s also proved (with Rocky at least) that the man is capable of being a fantastic director (let’s just forget about the first half of Rambo shall we).
The good folks over at Movieweb give us this:
The boxoffice comeback champ has just inked a lucrative deal to direct and star in two action films with his “Rambo” producers Danny Dimbort, Avi Lerner and Trevor Short of Nu Image/Millennium Films, says The Hollywood Reporter. Stallone also will produce the films with Kevin King-Templeton and Lerner. Dimbort, Short and Boaz Davidson will serve as executive producers. Several scripts are being considered for follow-ups to his surprise hit sequels to “First Blood” and “Rocky.” With Nu Image/Millennium’s new WGA interim deal speeding up the process, the first script is expected to be locked and loaded by the fall, with production set to begin shortly thereafter.
So Stallone getting a new deal isn’t a surprise at all… but what is a surprise is that even though he just definitively said there would be no new Rocky or Rambo films… Stallone today tells Reuters that he is in fact considering a Rambo 5:
“It will depend on the success of this one, but right now I think I’m gearing one up. It will be quite different,”
This is a complete reversal from what he said just the other day. I guess someone backing up a dump truck full of money can change your mind. But why would a studio put money behind another Rambo film? After a couple of weeks in theaters, Rambo has only made $33 million world wide… and needs to at least cross the $75 million mark to earn actual profit. That’s not going to happen. Is a studio actually going to consider a Rambo 5 as a good investment?
