No week in TV and movie news goes by without a tremendously bad idea being thrown around. It's just in the nature of the beast at this point. Why not make a TV show out of that story that was perfectly satisfying in a nicely paced two-hour package? Why not revive The Muppets and sexualize them so we can rope in the truly depraved as well? Why not make nostalgia for the 1980s and 1990s our guiding creative principle? And that's just on the TV side of things; to get into what all of this has done to modern Hollywood would invite a migraine that neither you or me want at this hour of the day.
So, it's not entirely shocking that, as Deadline reports, Fox is currently working with regular bad-idea phenomenon Sylvester Stallone to make a father-son show based off of the Rambo franchise. Fox closed the development deal early this week on Rambo: New Blood, which will focus on Rambo's relationship with his ex-Navy Seal son, J.R., with the focus largely being on an aging John Rambo. Stallone is expected to return to the role he originated, which spurred a handful of sequels that essentially double as right-wing wet dreams about the power of a few guns, explosives, and a good soldier being able to fix any international conflict. The fact that Rambo: First Blood, the initial film in the series, remains such a challenging political film, as well as an admittedly awesome action film, makes the nonsense of the follow-ups all the more depressing.
There's no word as to when the show will be firmed up and ready for production, but Jeb Stuart, who worked on the original Die Hard and The Fugitive, wrote the pilot and would likely lead the writer's room if the series was okayed, which is a small nugget of good news amongst a deluge of bad. Both of the aforementioned action films proved as quietly character based as they were explosive, and if Stuart can bring any of that becalmed reflection and narrative ingenuity to Rambo: New Blood, it will go along way towards me not screaming about the death of culture for my remaining years.
