Sylvester Stallone spoke to a packed audience at the Cannes Film Festival to give some insight into the past and future projects in his 43 year long career in the film making biz.
While discussing Rambo V: Last Blood, Stallone talked openly with regards to the emotional heart of the film:
“In every film, Rambo never goes home, he goes out the to the jungle or Afghanistan. In the new one, he does come home, but in a way he never arrives. He’s there, but he’s not. That’s what the whole story is built around. As soon as he walks outside his door, he has no more control. The world controls you.”
Stallone added regarding the plot:
“He has a beautiful ranch, but he lives underground. This is how he deals with his dilemma. There’s something subterranean in Vietnam. He has an adopted family there. His father has passed on. The housekeeper who is 70 has a granddaughter. He’s her surrogate father.
The girl finds her real father in Mexico and heads there. “Bad things happen,” says Stallone, “There’s going to be some serious vengeance in this movie. A lot of people getting hurt.”
On the comparison between his most famous roles (Rambo and Rocky), Stallone said:
“Rambo deals with the dark side of nature that most people live with. Rocky is different, he’s more the optimist. There’s optimism and pessimism in these two characters.”
When asked whether or not there was a future for another of his notable tough-guy roles, Marion Cobretti, Stallone was candid and offered hope for the future of the Cobra franchise:
“That (conceit) was what if Bruce Springsteen had a gun? That was rock n’ roll meets drama. That should have been another franchise because that character was so cool. And I blew it. My personal life got in the way. But we’re trying to bring it back as a streaming TV series. Bring out the zombie squad. I’m long gone, but the idea is really good,”
Presumably this implies that Sly would give his blessing to a hypothetical show, but would not necessarily be attached. But the man is fairly adventurous and willing to take risks, so who knows what the future really has in store for Cobra?
Other than the sure knowledge that somewhere out there, some fictitious evil dude just realised that the game was already up.
One of the takeaways is that it’s interesting that Stallone still cares for his old characters so much; he could be a writer fresh out of school and show as much love for his long-ago invented personas. There’s something unpretentious and resonant with someone aging gracefully, but still wanting to tell stories that mean something to them.
That said, call me crazy but all I really want out of Stallone is a Guardians of the Galaxy spinoff movie.
What do you think Wasteoids? Excited to see Last Blood or thinking about how good (or bad…potentially so, so bad) a Cobra TV show might be? You know, other than the one with the karate, I mean.
Sound off below!