Director Quentin Tarantino is on a book tour meeting and speaking with multiple outlets, this means he’s talking-up a bunch of hypothetical projects and ideas that normally he’d keep to himself or wait until there was a film to promote.
While chatting with The Big Picture Podcast (via The Playlist), the filmmaker brought up the idea of making a more commercial viable film by doing a faithful adaptation of the David Morrell novel First Blood, the book published in 1972 was developed into a starring vehicle for Sly Stallone in 1982 and led to four sequels.
“I would do the novel. And Kurt Russell would play the sheriff, and [Adam Driver] would play Rambo. Every time I read [the novel], the dialogue is so fantastic…[The film] would be so good,” Tarantino told the podcast about his ideas for a remake and who should take lead roles.
First came the man: a young wanderer in a fatigue coat and long hair. Then came the legend, as John Rambo sprang from the pages of FIRST BLOOD to take his place in the American cultural landscape. This remarkable novel pits a young Vietnam veteran against a small-town cop who doesn’t know whom he’s dealing with — or how far Rambo will take him into a life-and-death struggle through the woods, hills, and caves of rural Kentucky.
The idea is based on if he hadn’t planned on retiring after making his 10th feature film, so even if it’s neat idea, it’s unlikely going to happen. First Blood is considered the best of the Rambo movies as it the most coherent film, but wasn’t as faithful as some might imagine.
It’s a little curious why he’s bringing up First Blood, as there is indeed a Rambo remake in the works called Rambo: New Blood from Millennium Films. The remake reportedly had Brooks McLaren attached to pen the script and Ariel Vromen (The Iceman, Criminal) to direct, but there hasn’t been much of an update since 2016, so it’s unlikely that incarnation is going to happen.
Back in 2015, Stallone suggested in an interview during the press rounds for Creed that Canadian actor Ryan Gosling take the John Rambo mantle.
Author/creator David Morrell took to Twitter during the release of the critically panned Rambo: Last Blood and said he was embarrassed by it. Stallone had announced his retirement of the character not too long ago and it’s not like a remake would be stepping on his toes with a remake.
SOURCE: THE BIG PICTURE PODCAST
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