Claim:   Sylvester Stallone will portray John Rambo in Rambo IV, an upcoming film which will feature the hero tackling terrorists in Afghanistan and capturing Osama bin Laden.

Status:   False.

Example:   [Collected on the Internet, 2001]

I heard "Rambo 4" is in the making starring Sylvestor Stallone where he goes into Kabul, Afghanistan and kills everyone because his kids were killed in the World Trade Center bombings. There is a rumor that Sylvester Stalone is curenty in seclusion writing Rambo IV (ok technically First Blood IV). It is supposed to be about Rambo (to be played by a younger acter (also part of rumor)) going after Osama Bin Laden or another terrorist.

Origins:   The rumor of Sylvester Stallone in a Rambo IV film set in Afghanistan (just as Rambo III was) seems to have originated with a single-sentence mention in the London Times:

Stallone, 55, is at his Miami home working on the script of a fourth Rambo film in which the former Green Beret parachutes into Afghanistan to take on the Taliban.

People magazine then picked up on the rumor, adding a plot point about Osama bin Laden not mentioned in the Times article:

The "Rocky" star, whose box-office performances have been rocky of late, is currently at work in his Miami home on the script for a fourth "Rambo" adventure with an eye to a summer 2002 release, says the Times. In the new story, Rambo parachutes into Afghanistan to battle leaders of the Taliban. A possible storyline would involve the pumped-up hero with the oiled chest capturing terror chief Osama bin Laden alive.

(True rumor or not, a summer 2002 release for an action film that wasn't even out of the scripting stage yet sounded a little too ambitious to be feasible.)

Talk of a Rambo IV in the offing had occurred on and off for at least ten years, with rumors floating in the summer of 2001 involving Stallone teaming with Hong Kong action star Jackie Chan:

Jackie Chan gets equals billing with Slyvester Stallone in upcoming movie, Rambo IV, where Chan does not get killed off as scripted for originally

Action guy Jackie Chan wants to shed blood, not tears, in the upcoming movie, Rambo IV, with macho man Sylvester Stallone.

When you do get to see the Slyvester Stallone-Jackie Chan movie, Rambo: First Blood IV, you can be assured the ending will be a happy one.

An ending that is, where only the bad guys get gutted.

After countless talks of getting together to make a movie, Chan and Stallone are finally putting words into action and will collaborate on the movie, Rambo IV.

The hitch was the original script had only Rambo, the bare-bodied, inaudible role made famous by Stallone, left standing.

Chan's charactor was to be killed off.

In line with all his movies where no good guy dies, the 45-year-old Chan, who is now Tinseltown's IT man with such hits as Shanghai Noon and Rush Hour, has requested that the script be changed.

Then he gets to stand tall with Stallone in the end.

In March 2001, Miramax chairman Bob Weinstein mentioned the possibility of a Rambo IV, but with a different plot and not necessarily starring Stallone:

Miramax chairman Bob Weinstein says Rambo IV is in the stages for a e-script this summer - with at least a $50 million budget. Weinstein says, "We'd love nothing more than for Stallone to be involved. We think it's a billion-dollar property." The new script involves Rambo tackling drug dealers in an American government building.

And earlier in 2001 Stallone himself said he didn't think he'd be playing the Rambo character ever again:

I don't know if I'd look good in a thong anymore. In my fantasies, I'd love to do one more [Rambo film], but I don't think it would be in good taste at this age.

Whatever conceptions may have been mooted for a fourth Rambo film over the years, it ultimately wasn't produced until 2007. The 2008 release of that movie (entitled simply Rambo) saw Sylvester Stallone again playing the title role, this time battling human rights abuses (and the Burmese army) in Burma.

Last updated:   15 April 2008

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  Sources:

    Harlow, John.   "Rambo Gets Call-Up As Movies Catch War Fever."

    [London] Sunday Times.   11 November 2001.

    Hoffman, Bill.   "Rambo vs. Osama: Stallone Script in Works."

    New York Post.   12 November 2001.

    Silverman, Stephen M.   "Sly Stallone: Rambo to the Rescue."

    People.   12 November 2001.

    The [Singapore] Straits Times.   "Jackie vs. Rambo."

      24 August 2000.