John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) returns with his trusty knife for "silent kills" in RAMBO(2008).
© Lionsgate

Related Links

0

Stallone Opens up on RAMBO and DEATH WISH

It may be a slow news morning but a very nice Q&A session with Sylvester Stallone for Rambo has popped up online courtesy of Heather Newgen. In the session, the actor addressed some issues with filming, his thoughts on the previous films (he considers First Blood and this next film as the best), some previous crazy ideas for Rambo IV presented to him and a bit of humility in regards to the character..

Here's a taste..

CS: How did all the production companies come in?
Stallone: I don't know any of them either. [Laughs] What happened was Weinstein came about 12 years ago. "Would you want to do a Rambo?" I said, "okay." He goes, "We've got this great idea where Camp David's attacked." I go, "I'm out." It just can't be. There's something about nature as part of the character. There's something about the primitive man. He's almost like an Indian. Set in the city, I just didn't think it would fly. So it died for 10 years, resurfaced. At one time, Mark Burnett was talking about doing it when I was doing "The Contender" and then that didn't work. Then I called Harvey Weinstein and talked about these missionary groups that were going to Afghanistan. I said, "This is interesting." No, never got called back on that. So Avi Lerner bought it, New Millennium. He was open to this whole idea. The thing was, I was going to do something about Mexico. Actually the whole Coyote Mexican, remember the people disappearing in Juarez and that whole world. So we went that way and I said, "No, not working. I need something more international." So I did research and found that Burma is one of the great hellholes on the planet. But no one knows about it. It's exotic and it's near Vietnam. The synergy was perfect so that's why.

The actor was also approached about his involvement in a possible Death Wish remake.

CS: How do you bring back someone else's franchise, "Death Wish?"
Stallone: I think "Death Wish," if it were done today, would be volcanic. The idea of Jeff Goldblum being a mugger who breaks into an apartment is very simplistic. It gives you an idea how bad the elevation of violence has become. I would focus on defense attorneys, I would focus on [the people] allowing this crap to happen – not so much the guy on the street, it's like who permits it. What if it happened to you, that your daughter was grabbed and her eyes were put out; would you want to sit there and defend that guy? So there's moral questions here that are being presented that have not been answered in 30 years. So by no means is it the pacifist [origin of the original]. Also, I see – I'll give you a little hint – he was a very violent human being, completely violent, an ex convict who walked the walk, was accepted back into society and did everything he could to be a [good person]. Like these thieves and junkies who now work on the side of the law, they've gone that way, but when something happens he reverts back to that guy. So now you've unleashed a man who really understands the world of violence; he isn't burdened with this passive-aggressive, conscientious-objector kind of thing. That's been done. It's like what happens when the wolf has gone from wolf to wolf in sheep's clothing back to the wolf. Now the fellow on the street has a problem because he knows how to deal with that kind of mentality because he was a prisoner. So it would be a different take [Laughs].

For more of this Q&A, click here.

Rambo will hit theaters this Friday.