Hey folks, Harry here... trying out our new spanking cool server with a story about John Rambo and AB King's hero Sylvester Stallone! Very cool. I'm curious as hell to see how this icon of 80's "kill a commie for mommy" movies fares in the 21st Century. Here ya go...
Hi ABking,
Here's the latest Press Release. Enjoy breaking it before it goes
worldwide on 30 May!
All the best,
Maria Felce,
Marketing Co-ordinator
Alpha1Media
Nu Image/ Millennium Films begins ‘Rambo IV’ in 2006
London, England (28 May, 2005) – ‘Rambo IV’ begins preliminary shooting
in Bulgaria in January 2006, as Nu Image/ Millennium Films acquire film
rights from Miramax/ Dimension Films.
US-based film production company Nu Image/ Millennium Films have
acquired the film rights to the ‘Rambo’ film franchise from Miramax/
Dimension Films, with principal shooting for ‘Rambo IV’ to begin in
Sofia, Bulgaria in January 2006, with filming locations in India and
the USA.
Sylvester Stallone, the Italian-American film actor who played the
titular role in the ‘Rambo’ film trilogy, signed with Nu Image/
Millennium Films to begin ‘Rambo IV’ in May 2005, stating that the
production company had optioned a book for the new ‘Rambo’, for which
he has adapted a complete script, likening it to vengeance films
like ‘Deliverance’ and ‘Straw Dogs’. According to Stallone, the new
plotline sees the character of Rambo as having “assimilated into the
tapestry of America”, living with his family in relative peace for the
past fifteen years but still working for the military, when work
pressures force him to move his family to the American outback. The
Navajo-Indian former Green Beret and his family are then subject to an
attack by white-supremacists, and Rambo has to risk life-and-limb in
rescuing his 10-year old daughter from being held hostage. Commentators
have noted that the premise of the film is similar to one touted by
Stallone in 1997, following the Oklahoma bombings, and comparisons have
been drawn with the US federal government’s attack at Ruby Ridge in
1991, including the role played by former Green Beret Colonel
James “Bo” Gritz.
Nu Image Films, the owners of the film rights for ‘Rambo’, was
established in 1992 by Avi Lerner, a veteran film producer from Israel,
and has annually produced 15 to 18 low-budget and foreign-sale films.
In 1996, Nu Image formed Millennium Films to address the market’s
growing need for quality art films and higher budget action features.
Since 1999, Nu Image has filmed 40 films at their studios in Sofia,
Bulgaria, and Millennium Films now has titles on its slate with budgets
of up to $68 million. These include Brian De Palma’s ‘The Black
Dahlia,’ starring Scarlett Johansson, Josh Hartnett and Hilary
Swank, ‘Edison,’ a film starring Morgan Freeman, Kevin Spacey and
Justin Timberlake, ‘16 Blocks’ starring Bruce Willis and the remake of
the 1973 thriller ‘The Wicker Man,’ starring Nicolas Cage. Nu Image/
Millennium Films had a co-production deal with Miramax/ Dimension
Films, which had been in place till the Weinstein Brothers left both
companies. Nu Image/ Millennium Films acquired the rights to
the ‘Rambo’ film franchise, with their chairman, Lerner, stating that
Stallone is “one of the smartest guys I know.” Having persuaded
Stallone to co-star with a younger actor in ‘Rambo IV’, Lerner is
confident about the film’s future success. “It’s a franchise,” he
says. “If No. 4 works, then you have a No. 5.” Nu Image recently
announced plans to produce Poe, a film about the life and works of
gothic author, Edgar Allen Poe, to the screen with Stallone helming the
director’s chair for the first time since 1985’s smash-hit, ‘Rocky IV’,
and scheduled to begin production prior to ‘Rambo IV’.
The international scale of Alpha1Media’s ‘Holy War’ treatment has been
envisaged as a plausible future instalment for the franchise, with
several elements being utilised for ‘Rambo IV’, including the return to
Rambo’s Navajo roots and domestication for the super-soldier with wife
and family. Miramax Films received the first draft of ‘Rambo IV: Holy
War’ in October 2003, during which the Rambo film saga was still in
development hell. In October 2004, Alpha1Media released an early draft
of the film treatment on the internet, drawing global fervour and
controversy, and reviving interest in the film franchise for producers
and audiences alike.
Many of the films released in April and May 2005 have themes and
references which featured in the ‘Holy War’ treatment from October
2003. Sydney Pollack’s ‘The Interpreter’ was set and filmed at the
United Nations Building in New York, the scene for much of the action
in early drafts of ‘Holy War’. Lee Tamahori’s ‘XXX: State of the
Union’, about a radical splinter group of American military dissenters
attempting to overthrow the United States government shared many
thematic concerns as the controversial treatment. Ridley
Scott’s ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ is a sweeping epic set during the Crusades,
concerned with a medieval ‘Clash of Civilisations’ in contrast to ‘Holy
War’s contemporary reading. Alpha1Media have been in discussions with
Nu Image for a new and revised script treatment for the ‘Rambo’ film
franchise since March 2005.
Acclaimed Indian film actor, Amitabh Bachchan, who had the role of UN
Secretary-General Amit Talian in ‘Holy War’ written specially for him,
was appointed UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in New York in April 2005. ‘I
feel greatly honoured that UNICEF has chosen me to be a Goodwill
Ambassador, and to be able to propagate the issues that UNICEF is
associated with, in India and elsewhere,’ said Mr. Bachchan. Nu Image
is also scouting for film locations for ‘Rambo IV’ in Mumbai and
Nagpur, further enhancing speculation that Indian film actor, Hrithik
Roshan, will assume the role of Rambo’s Afghani-American step-son,
Hamid, as intended in the ‘Holy War’ treatment.