It was always an odd story, but it now appears that Sly Stallone has scrapped his original, slightly sci-fi plans for Rambo V. Those plans, you may recall, involved John Rambo back in the Pacific Northwest, taking a squad into a secret military base to shut down a man-beast supersoldier project gone awry: "an amalgamation of fury and intelligence and pure unadulterated rage from before Man became human," as Stallone put it. It was going to be called The Savage Hunt. There was even a poster!
Well no more, at least not with Rambo. That plotline comes from James Byron Higgins' Hunter: a novel to which Stallone has long held the rights. And it's still happening, according to the big man, who says "that story will be done using another character in the lead". Nathaniel Hunter, the novel's actual protagonist, perhaps?
So where does that leave Rambo? Back down Mexico way apparently, which was widely reported to be the original plan: a Taken-like rescue mission of a young girl from drug traffickers. "Rambo will be heading over the border to a violent city where many young women have vanished," says Sly now. And, he promises, "there will be blood".
We're actually slightly disappointed that Rambo isn't now headed off in a crazy new direction, but given the worldwide "what-the-hell?!" reaction to the original news, Stallone is probably wise to have re-thought. Hunter now joins a pile of possible future projects to follow The Expendables, alongside Death Wish, Poe and Cliffhanger 2.
Shooting on Rambo 5 was originally pencilled in for the spring.