It was the 1980s. Rambo was rescuing his colonel with the help of Afghanistan’s mujahedin. Rocky was making yet another comeback. John McClane was thinking ”not again”. Indiana Jones was on his last crusade. Fast forward 20 years or so, and coming to a screen near you will be Rambo rescuing missionaries from Burma, Rocky making yet another comeback, John McClane thinking ”not again” and Indiana Jones on his last crusade.
With producers behind James Bond showing how to keep a good film franchise going, Hollywood studios are reaching into their back pockets and bringing out sequels to some of the most financially successful action movies ever. Rambo, Rocky, Die Hard and Indiana Jones movies are all on the horizon and the ”he-men” who made their names in them, Sylvester Stallone (60), Bruce Willis (51) and Harrison Ford (64), will all be back too, albeit a little more lined and a little more creaky.
”I don’t think it makes anyone’s spirits rise,” said Ian Christie, professor of film studies at Birkbeck College, London. ”It isn’t driven by anything other than investment potential.”
The return of successful and recognisable 1980s franchises is, of course, driven by dollar signs. ”It is all about digital rights management. If you own a franchise and trade in it, the theory is there is a world where there is an ever-expanding market for every kind of audiovisual product,” said Christie. ”Now you can sell a film to so many different media. There are different layers of TV, different layers of DVD, you can sell it to games companies … to as yet unimagined platforms.”
First up will be Rocky, the story of a dim but good hearted underdog triumphing over adversity by beating the living daylights out of his opponents in the boxing ring. It began in 1976 and came back four times, helped by its instantly recognisable theme tune. The original Rocky was critically praised and won three Oscars. Rumours surrounding Rocky Balboa, due out in February, have been surprisingly positive.
How they get round the implausibility of a 60-year-old actor playing a character who takes on the reigning world champion, played by real boxer Antonio Tarver, is another question.
But if you can have an ageing boxer, why not an ageing Vietnam veteran skilled in all kinds of guerrilla warfare? We last saw John Rambo rescuing Colonel Trautman from Soviet forces in Afghanistan, aided by the mujahedin in a film that made it into the Guinness World Records as the most violent movie to date — 221 individual acts of violence and at least 108 deaths.
Rumours that Rambo might this time sort out Iraq appear to be unfounded, although four years ago Stallone did talk of a fourth movie that involved his character tracking down Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan.
What is known is that Rambo IV: In The Serpent’s Eye sees Stallone’s character living a quiet life in Thailand before being persuaded to lead a team of high-tech soldiers to rescue captured aid workers in Burma.
It is due out next year, as is Live Free or Die Hard with Bruce Willis reprising his role as cop John McClane who, three times so far, has found himself in the middle of a fantastically ambitious and well-planned criminal plot. This time the bad guys are using the internet to bring the United States to its knees in a film that began filming in Baltimore in September with Timothy Olyphant (Sheriff Seth Bullock from Deadwood) as the baddest baddie.
A more family-oriented action hero from the 1980s was Indiana Jones, last seen in the, with hindsight, mistitled Last Crusade. Plans for a fourth film have been circulating for years, but Stephen Spielberg seems set to return to the director’s chair for a film due out in 2008. Another action hero rumoured to be making a comeback is former European middleweight kickboxing champion Jean-Claude van Damme — possibly as the villain in Rush Hour III.
Christie said there is always a danger of franchises going beyond their sell-by date. ”Look at Jaws — they got progressively worse and by the last one everyone was holding up their hands in horror.”
For anyone putting their heads in their hands at the thought of more sequels, be warned. Next summer has already been labelled ”sequel summer” with pencilled-in films including Pirates of the Caribbean III, Harry Potter V, Shrek the Third, Ocean’s Thirteen, Spider-Man III, The Bourne Ultimatum and Alien vs Predator II. — Guardian Unlimited Â