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Stallone On Death Wish Remake
Plus Cliffhanger sequel and Poe biopic

01 October 2009  |  Written by Phil de Semlyen  


With The Expendables soon storming our screens and Rambo 5 tooling up, you'd think Sylvester Stallone might want to take a breather from the massive explosions and give peace a bit of a chance. Well, you'd be half right. The Italian Stallone has a few things on his mind and one of them is a remake of '70s exploitationer Death Wish.

"I'm thinking about it," Stallone told us. "It's a classic morality tale, where you take a civilised man and take away everything that matters to him so he becomes primitive again."

Eagle-eyed readers will have spotted some thematic similarities between John Rambo and the gnarly vigilante played by Charles Bronson, but the idea of Rambo-Takes-Broadway is still very much at the chewing-over stage. "The story's been done many times, and when it's done well, it's an emotionally engaging film. The trouble with remakes is that people fall in love with the original. It's like peanut butter. If you try to change the taste of peanut butter, you're in trouble."

It's not all angst-ridden mayhem in the Stallone diary, though. Tearing around the Latin jungle with Dolph Lundgren and the Stath would get anyone's creative juices flowing, but it's still a bit of a surprise to hear his passion for a biopic of writer Edgar Allan Poe, high priest of the American Gothic. "I keep telling my producer Avi Lerner, 'Make Edgar Allan Poe!' He says, 'Does he have a gun?' 'No, he doesn't have a gun', 'Can he throw a knife?' I say, 'No, he writes poetry!'

Sadly the awesome sight of Stallone, quill pen in hand, bashing out The Pit And The Pendulum will be denied us. "Of course, I'm not playing Poe. 'Yo, Poe!' It won't work! It'll be some young actor because he dies at 39, but it's gonna happen."

Another project likely to go Stallone-less is a mooted Cliffhanger sequel. "I hear they're gonna remake it," Sly said. "You know you've been around when they start to remake your own movies when you're still alive." Mind you, judging by this small army of very corrupt and very dead Latin-types, we can't imagine the odd cliff would present too much of a problem.


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Your Comments

RE: Bored of action movies no one will ever top John woo's HARDBOILED. POE, at last!
I refuse to watch the Get Carter remake, what next, Vin Diesel doing A Long Good Friday?!!! But the original Death Wish is shit anyway, so wtf. More

Posted by iconzero at 09:07 on 03 October 2009 | Report This Post

RE: Bored of action movies no one will ever top John woo's HARDBOILED. POE, at last!
Death Wish has already been remade, It's called The Brave One. More

Posted by iconzero at 08:57 on 03 October 2009 | Report This Post

Bored of action movies no one will ever top John woo's HARDBOILED. POE, at last!
Grew up watching stallone movies like Rambo and Cobra, stuff like that, it was a suprise to me that he is an absolute fanatic of the high priest of horror "Poe". I hope he brings the Kurt cobain of the gothic literature to the big screen, for my money Jeffrey combs should play POE as he did a fantatic job in Stuart (re-animator) gordon's The black cat. More

Posted by Horrorguru at 10:52 on 02 October 2009 | Report This Post

RE: Stallone said after his AICN Q&A that he was dropping Death Wish...
id love to see a death wish remake with stallone but the beauty of the original was bronson just looked like a normal guy you wouldnt expect to be a vigilante in rambo stallone was ribbed to feck and certainly doesnt look like a normal guy!! if he hadn't starred in death sentance i would have said kevin bacon would have fit the bill quite well! Oh and stallone's get carter was better than the original!! What.......... More

Posted by Frank Castle at 23:29 on 01 October 2009 | Report This Post

Stallone said after his AICN Q&A that he was dropping Death Wish...
This was 2 or 3 years ago now, and I remember the Q&A cos I asked a question and Sly answered it! He asked what the fans thought of remaking Death Wish and the mood in the talkbacks was so negative he said he was dropping the idea. More

Posted by lisamoorish at 17:30 on 01 October 2009 | Report This Post

sounds GOOD
the idea of Sly doing both 'DEATH WISH' and 'POE' sounds good to me. More

Posted by Snake-Eyes at 16:15 on 01 October 2009 | Report This Post

I love Sly's sense of humour..
...Every quote is a funny line! It's charming when a huge star doesn't take themselves, or the business, too seriously. More

Posted by Cameron1975Williams at 13:38 on 01 October 2009 | Report This Post

Going by theoh-so-80s 'Taken' I thought Liam Neeson had already taken up the Death Wish baton from Bronson. More

Posted by granny at 13:14 on 01 October 2009 | Report This Post

RE: Charlie Bronson Turns In His Grave
zombie Charles Bronson at the vigilante would be a better idea! p; Great idea - but how would we tell the difference?   Wish remake with Stallone wouldn't work because we've seen Stallone win in tough situations too many times. If some nerdy guy was taking on the street thugs, you'd be worried the whole time if he was going to beat them. the film would be called 'Deathwish'? Pretty much a solid guarantee the neb would triumph, whether it's Stallone (c'mon, he's 64 it's like beating up More

Posted by TheMadFatChickKiller at 13:09 on 01 October 2009 | Report This Post

Where#s the uncut Workprint version of the original Cliffhanger?
C'mon, release that instead, it'll be cheaper than remaking (unless bright fucking spark exec thinks "I know, we won't go on location we'll do it all CGI, like 300, and Spirit, and everything else") so you'll have a rip-roaring mountain adventure, filmed in a small room with guys in green leotards. Sounds like a motherfucking blast More

Posted by TheMadFatChickKiller at 13:04 on 01 October 2009 | Report This Post

Bad idea. Just look how bad the Get Carter remake was. More

Posted by Leeorami 2.0 at 11:19 on 01 October 2009 | Report This Post

Charlie Bronson Turns In His Grave
A Death Wish remake with Stallone wouldn't work because we've seen Stallone win in tough situations too many times. If some nerdy guy was taking on the street thugs, you'd be worried the whole time if he was going to beat them. A better movie. Even a zombie Charles Bronson at the vigilante would be a better idea! More

Posted by BenTramer at 10:56 on 01 October 2009 | Report This Post

The Pen is mightier than the sword...bollocks says The Stath
Death Wish remake...No! Cliffhanger sequal/remake...NO! Edgar Allen Poe, yep, that sounds interesting. As long as he has a gun, a knife and shit blows up of course...oh, and Jason Statham playing Poe. More

Posted by MaxRenn at 10:29 on 01 October 2009 | Report This Post


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