Sylvester Stallone was about to use this script as ‘Rambo 4’ but ended up discarding the idea
Actors Jason Statham and Sylvester Stallone They worked together on the four films of the ‘The Mercenaries’ saga and soon the former will release a new action thriller written by the latter. It won’t be the first time something like this happens, as Statham already starred in a film that Stallone had previously developed to be a new installment of the ‘Rambo’ franchise.
Statham’s film in question is ‘The Protector’, a thriller directed by Gary Fleder in 2013 in which they also participate James Franco and Winona Ryder, whose career was resurrected years later thanks to ‘Stranger Things’. What many may not remember about it is that the script was signed by Stallone himself, who several years before very seriously considered using it as the basis for ‘Rambo 4’.
The truth is that the film is based on a novel by Chuck Logan who had convinced Stallone that he was the ideal material for the return of the legendary John Rambo. There we would have seen said character become the father of a girl and working for the DEA. After moving to a small town in Louisiana, he soon makes enemies and his past comes to light, making both him and his daughter targets.
However, STallone was not convinced of that idea.a, both because of the great change it represented for the character and, above all, because he believed that Rambo had not yet returned to the United States. For this reason, he discarded the script and finally opted for the story that served as the basis for ‘John Rambo’, the action film that he considers the best of his career.
They both came out winners
However, the script had left good sensations in Hollywood, so the connection with Rambo ended up being eliminated in order to turn it into a film at the service of Statham. Of course, the protagonist of ‘Despierta la furia’ did not hesitate to praise Stallone’s work during the promotional campaign for ‘The Protector’ remembering the following in Den of Geek.
He is one of the great screenwriters. I think people forget how many great movies he’s written. You know, he wrote ‘High Risk’, he wrote all the Rockys, all the Rambos, all the ‘Expendables’ movies. It’s like a mega-hit library. It has a seal of quality. When you mention Stallone you know he’s going to be decent. Better than decent, you know?
In the end they both wonsince Stallone triumphed with the other version of the story in ‘John Rambo’ and Statham also scored a point with ‘The Protector’, which raised 51.7 million dollars against a budget of 22. That way he was able to remove the bad financial taste in the mouth that both ‘Parker’ and ‘Redemption’ had left, the other two action films with the protagonist that he released that year.
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