The Perfect Character For Stallone In Tarantino's First Blood (Not Rambo)
Quentin Tarantino recently expressed interest in a First Blood remake and if it ever happened, here's the best role for ex-Rambo Sylvester Stallone.
While it's extremely unlikely to ever happen, there is one role in Quentin Tarantino's proposed remake of First Blood that would be perfect for Sylvester Stallone. First Blood is a 1972 novel by author David Morrell that dealt with a traumatized Vietnam veteran named Rambo who launches a bloody war on a small town after he's harassed by the local sheriff. Despite Rambo becoming an action movie icon during the 1980s, First Blood itself is a surprisingly grounded chase thriller where only one character dies.
First Blood itself spent many years in development hell, with the part being offered to the likes of Steve McQueen before Stallone finally signed on. At the time, the star was struggling to score a big hit outside of the Rocky series, and he was famously so appalled by First Blood's original, 3-hour cut he offered to buy the negative so he could destroy it. Re-edits turned it into a taut thriller, though it toned down the character depicted in the book. In Morrell's First Blood, Rambo has no issue killing those who got in his way, and in the end, he's killed with a shotgun blast to the head.
Director Quentin Tarantino only has one movie left to go before his self-imposed retirement limit kicks in. He has yet to announce what that final film will be, but in a chat with The Big Picture podcast, he revealed that if he wanted to set out to make a great movie, he'd do a straight adaptation of First Blood. Tarantino loves the dialogue of Morrell's novel and sees Adam Driver playing Rambo while Kurt Russell would play the sheriff. There is one last key role from the novel, and it would be kind of perfect for Sylvester Stallone: Colonel Sam Trautman.
In the first three Rambo movies, Trautman was played by the late, great Richard Crenna, with the Colonel being the only friend and mentor to Sylvester Stallone's Rambo. This is in contrast to the book, however, where Trautman is brought in just to kill Rambo, with the latter barely remembering him. Stallone could bring a very different take on Colonel Trautman, and it would be very easy to buy him as an authority figure and war veteran. If Russell was cast as Sheriff Teasle, this new First Blood could also serve as a reunion between the Tango And Cash co-stars; though obviously, the tones would be vastly different.
Outside of being mere stunt casting, Stallone could bring both a gravitas and ambiguity to the Trautman of Tarantino's First Blood. While Stallone has a story concept for Rambo 6 that would see the wounded soldier taking refuge in an Indian reservation, it appears he probably won't reprise the role again. The might be something oddly fitting about seeing Stallone's Trautman being the one to finally kill Rambo onscreen, as the character does in the novel's ending. If any actor is suited to bring Rambo's big-screen journey to a close, it would be Sylvester Stallone. Again, this Tarantino First Blood remake is unlikely to go ahead, but it does have the potential to be something special.