EmpireOnLine.com recently posted their list of The Top 25 Best One Man Armies in the Movies. Of course, Rambo came in at #1. Who could argue with that? The rest of the list can [and should] be debated. Isn’t that the purpose of lists? Here are my suggestions for the top ten:

1. Rambo played by SYLVESTER STALLONE in FIRST BLOOD, RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD, PART II, RAMBO III, RAMBO
2. Lee played by BRUCE LEE in ENTER THE DRAGON
3. Bryan Mills played by LIAM NEESON in TAKEN
4. Geno Felino played by STEVEN SEAGAL in OUT FOR JUSTICE
5. Creasy played by DENZEL WASHINGTON in MAN ON FIRE
6. Walker played by LEE MARVIN in POINT BLANK
7. El Mariachi played by ANTONIO BANDERAS in DESPERADO, ONCE UPON A TIME IN MEXICO
8. John Matrix played by ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER in COMMANDO
9. Blade played by WESLEY SNIPES in BLADE, BLADE II, BLADE TRINITY
10. John Preston played by CHRISTIAN BALE in EQUILIBRIUM

To see the full list, click here.

Since we broke the story of Sly’s e-mail to the StalloneZone about changing the direction of the next “Rambo” movie and the potential for Hunter to be made, several sites picked up the story and ran with it:

• AICN: Stallone Says Rambo is No Longer Rambo vs that Horrible Monster Guy
• Movie Web: “Rambo V: A Savage Hunt Changes Direction”
• ScreenRant: “Is ‘Rambo 5′ Heading Back to Mexico?”
• Empire Movies: “Rambo V Changes Again”
• SlashFilm: Sylvester Stallone Updates on Rambo 5, Saves Monster Plot for Unrelated Film
• Icon vs Icon: Sylvester Stallone Issues ‘Rambo V’ Update
• WorstPreviews: Sylvester Stallone Changes “Rambo 5″ Storyline
• Screencave: Rambo 5 Won’t Be Man vs Beast
• Coming Soon: Rambo V Changes Direction
• JoBlo.com: Rambo 5 Update
• Greek Tyrant: Change in Direction of Rambo 5
• IndieMoviesOnLine: John Rambo No Longer Has Monster Problem
• The Press Association: Stallone Ditches Sci-Fi Plans
• CinemaBlend: Stallone Flips the Script on Rambo 5
• Hollywood.com: Is John Rambo Heading to Juarez?
• Collider.com: Rambo V Goes Hunting in a New Direction…
• Digital Spy: Stallone’s “Rambo 5″ Loses Sci-Fi Twist
• CinemaSpy: So Just What Will Stallone’s ‘Rambo 5′ Be About?
• MTV Movies Blog: “Rambo” Folow-Up Changes Direction…

Hey SZoners - I just received an e-mail from Sly for all SZoners:

From Sly

Hi Craig,

This is from Sly to your followers:

To all the loyal SZoners out there,

I’m letting you know that Rambo has changed course and the story about hunting the man/beast will be done using another character in the lead. RAMBO himself will be heading over the border to a violent city where many young women have vanished .

There will be blood.

Best,
Sly Stallone

This is great news since it means that we should get two Stallone movies - a new “Rambo” [back to the concept everyone seemed to dig] and what sounds like “Hunter” based on the novel written specifically for Sly by James Byron Huggins.  It’s no secret that I and many SZoners have been hoping that Sly would adapt the novel for the big screen. - Craig

On November 4, 2009, Clint Morris did a report on the American Film Market for Moviehole.com.  At this event companies try to get distribution deals for their films.  One of the films marketed was “Rambo V: The Savage Hunt”.  Here’s what was said:

Rambo 5 - Nu Image/Millennium Films will be selling shares in the latest bullet-in-the-abdomen commercial. The flyer says the Sylvester Stallone is now in pre-production, which means it’ll be the big guy’s next film. I’m assuming Lionsgate have the U.S rights in the bag - since they released “Rambo” - but I’m not certain. Either way, if you represent a Croatian distributor, and know there’s an audience out there who’d kill to see another protein shake advert headlined by a 65-year-old mass of mutton, then pull up a seat…. Avi Lerner has a number he wants to show you.

One suggestion, I would change the title to simply “Rambo: The Savage Hunt”.

++++++++++

On November 6, 2009, Movieline.com posted an article by Mark Lisanti about the American Film Market and “Ten Modestly Budgeted Mindblowing Films to Watch”.  “Rambo V: The Savage Hunt” was listed first under the subheading :“The Big One”.  Here’s what was said:

2008’s surprisingly excellent Rambo (and by “surprisingly excellent,” we mean “so incredibly ultramegaviolent that the entire theater whooped with delight each time an evil Burmese soldier was sheared in half by machine-gun fire”) left many unanswered questions: How will our mom-jeans-wearing hero readjust to life in an ass-hugging, boot-cut world? Can Stallone improve upon his frenetic 2.59 kills-per-minutes pace? Will a back-to-basics Rambo abandon high-powered weaponry in favor of eviscerating each foe with his bare hands, jamming his meaty, battle-hardened paws into the soft bellies of his enemies and withdrawing steaming handfuls of wriggling, soupy guts? We may finally get those answers, and sooner rather than later. (More on the actual plot here, for those who aren’t content to let their imaginations run wild.)

The last time we heard from Miguel Insignares was back in May when we posted a sketch that he’d done for my Stallone art theme. At that time, I said that Miguel was working on a pretty cool concept for a comic/movie. We’ll get to that in a second, but first… Miguel created the cool Rambo art that sits a top of this post. Miguel says:

Hope all is well. I wanted to send you a brand-new Rambo drawing I did that has never been seen before on the net! I also wanted to give you an update about my upcoming comic book along with a list of the talent involved. If your readers dig the art style I used on the Rambo piece, they’re gonna get plenty of it in my new comic! In addition, I have other brand new RAMBO & ROCKY illustrations that I would love to debut on your site every couple of weeks leading up to the release of my comic on January 29 2010!! The Press Release can be found at the official website: www.islandofthedead.com

Thanks again for your support and keep up the great work.

Miguel — we’d love to see more of your Stallone art here at the SZ.  I also look forward to your The Rufnex: Island of the Dead comic.  You’ve hit on to a great concept and it should be a winner for everyone involved — especially the fans!

SZoner, Lefebvre, sent in this link with the news that the French magazine, Impact will be out next week.

Otis Frampton is an extremely talented artist who loves drawing for his fans. Every Sunday [okay, ALMOST, every Sunday], Otis has a live UStream broadcast that he calls the 7×7 Sunday.  Lucky fans can get a headsketch of ANY character drawn live by Otis on a 7X7 inch bristol board for 7 bucks postage paid.   It’s the best deal going.

I’ve been lucky enough to get four pieces from Otis and the Rambo shown above is my first.  I’ll be showing the rest in the coming weeks.  In the mean time, check out Otis’ Gallery.  Most likely, after seeing more of his work, I’ll be competing against you in Otis’ next 7×7 Sunday.

After last week’s post about Edinho Maga’s new Rambo sculpture, I was contacted by Mark at Hollywood Collectibles.  Here’s what Mark had to say:

Hey Craig,

I saw the piece about the new Rambo 18″ (actually around 20″ with base), that Edinho has sculpted for us. This isn’t a spec piece by Edinho, we commissioned him to do it & it is going to be produced.  When the time comes we will offer your forum guys a discount again.

You may also be interested to know we also recently picked up the license for both 12″ & 18″ statues from Rocky! This covers all the movies, so we are starting to develop product now. Also a 1:1 lifesize  Rocky bust is in the pipeline too!

Hope all is well.

Best,

Mark

+++++

SZoners, how cool is that?  Now we know for sure that Hollywood Collectibles will be involved, not only with the production of Edinho’s new Rambo sculpture, but Rocky statues as well as a life size Rocky bust. 

I am really glad that Hollywood Collectibles is invovled.  They put out a great product, and have always treated SZoners right.  Keep in mind that the last Rambo statue sold out quickly.    I will keep us  posted on updates about the Rocky and Rambo statues so that SZoners will be first to know when they become available.  As always, thanks to Mark and the rest of the fine folks at Hollywood Collectibles for keeping us in the loop.

Edinho Maga contacted me with photos of his latest sculpture. It’s Rambo and he’s hoping that Hollywood Collectibles will become involved like with his first Rambo sculpt.  If they do, I will try to work out another discount for StalloneZoners.

Sly spoke to reporters at the Venice Film Festival. Here’s some of what he had to say:

On “The Expendable”: “Arnold, Bruce and I will be working together for the first time, maybe in two weeks, so I had to grow back my beard and get ready to film it in Los Angeles.”

 On “The Expendables”: “It’s very difficult to get us all together at the same time. It’s impossible to get all those egos in the same room.”

On Rambo:  “I don’t want to keep repeating myself and just doing films about war… This is a very psychological film about sophisticated man fighting primitive man.”

On his career:  “What’s very unusual in my life is that I’m now, at this age, starting to develop what I should have done 20 years ago which is more directing and writing and especially not the movies I am in.”

On his career: “The key will be to direct other people and write for other people. Then that cycle will be broken.”

On Movies: “The day of independent cinema is coming back. I think the young people in the audience are going to demand it. ‘Okay, we’ve seen enough fantasy, we’ve seen enough big spectacle, what about stories about us?’”

On “The Expendables”: “I wanted to do a film that was more about men and just doing things that we did back in the ’80s and ’90s with films that were a little bit more men on men, and actual physical stunts and also a story that isn’t super-gigantic.”

For the entire reports check out:

• HeraldScotland.com: Stallone Teams Up with Arnie and Bruce Willis…
• The USDaily.com: Stallone, Willis, Schwarzeneger Dream Team
• WXEL: Stallone, Willis, Schwarzenegger Dream Team
• News.24: Stallone, Willis, Arnie Team Up
• SpiceZee: Stallone, Willis, Schwarzenegger Form Dream Team