NEWS: Ivan Drago, Rambo 5, Alien 5

IVAN DRAGO

For the first time in 33 years, Dolph Lundgren reprises the role of a now older Ivan Drago and, speaking with Empire, Lundgren reveals that time has not been kind to the former boxer:

“Basically, my character has been in a living hell since 1985 and lost everything. The script re-introduces him as a pretty damaged character, emotionally, and somebody who’s suffered a lot physically from a hard life. I can identify with that quite easily. The physical part [and] the emotional part.”

It all sounds good and this (Creed II) could be the film of the year.

RAMBO V

Author David Morrell appeared on the Culture Creature podcast this week.  And he spoke about an apparently different original intended direction for Rambo V.

In 2015, when Sly was working on ‘Creed,’ he called me and asked to collaborate on a fifth ‘Rambo’ film. Every weekend through March and April, we had many conversations. They went on for like ninety minutes to two hours. He and I worked out a story, which we were thinking of in terms of film festivals – he wanted it to be a ‘soulful journey’ – that’s a word Sly likes to use. And it was. This was a really emotional, powerful story – which I can’t talk about.

He took it to the producers and they said, ‘No, we wanna do a movie about human trafficking.’ That was the end of that story so far as I know. Then Sly announced that he was retiring from the character. There was a big press announcement I believe in 2016, in which he said, ‘That’s it, I’m not playing Rambo anymore.’ So, alright, that’s fine.

Then, to my great surprise, I learned that there’s this fifth Rambo film being shot. Which is not the story that Sylvester and I talked about. It is, in fact, a human trafficking story – or, at least, it has something to do with the Mexican cartel. But here’s the problem: the film company will not talk to me. I know nothing about this movie. And I’m being asked, by journalists such as you, and all I can say is, I don’t know anything.

I will say this. There have been photos of Sly. At the end of the fourth film, he shows up at a ranch in Arizona. The shots that are being released show Sly on horseback in cowboy regalia. He’s a rancher. They show him in a bunkhouse with weapons and stuff. They show him wearing a cowboy hat with a vest.

I welcome that because when I wrote First Blood, I thought of it from the beginning as being a western. A modern western. If you look closely at it, this is the story of a gunfighter who wants to hang up his guns, but the local law won’t let him do it.”

Why was the studio so bent on going that certain route?

ALIEN 5

Sigourney Weaver has spoken with THR to talk about various movies and issues, including the ill fated Alien 3 reboot.

“We almost started to do it when I was working with James Cameron. But by the time we were put off by Fox, Neill had gotten so many jobs that we’d have to wait probably. I’m busy doing Avatar 4 and 5. I love working with Neill and I think he’d do a terrific job, and James Cameron really thinks it’s a great idea, so you never know. Right now, I think Neill’s got like three projects going at once.”

Of course Neill Blomkamp is now doing RoboCop Returns instead.