Over a year ago we were bombarded with news of there possibly being a fifth Rambo movie - news that quickly transformed into a bizarre saga of rumors and misconceptions - and for once it wasn't entirely the Internet's fault.

It all started when it was announced that Rambo 5 had been greenlit. Then came a title (Rambo V: The Savage Hunt) along with a bizarre sci-fi/horror plot synopsis that involved Rambo and his young protege taking on a predatory monster created by government experiments. Before too long Stallone backed out, claiming there would be no more Rambo movies.

Despite that claim, promotional posters for Rambo V were displayed at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival, and it was rumored that the studio could possibly make another Rambo without Stallone, either using the genetic monster story, or a previously rumored story involving Rambo fighting Mexican cartels. When that talk died down, it was then rumored that there could instead be a Rambo prequel, featuring a new actor playing a younger version of John Rambo. But that plan ultimately went nowhere as well.

And so, after that long and fruitless saga, talk about Rambo seemed to drop off...until now.

It now seems that Rambo 5 - now going by the title Rambo: Last Stand - is alive and well, after a conversation with Conan The Barbarian screenwriter Sean Hood revealed a juicy bit of info. As Hood told Fear Net:

I recently finished a first draft of Rambo: Last Stand (Rambo 5) for Millennium films, based on a story idea by Sylvester Stallone. Hopefully, Mr. Stallone will eventually have the time and the inclination to do another Rambo.

After this news hit the Interwebs, Empire did some fact-checking and discovered that not only was this a real thing, but that Stallone himself was involved in making it happen - despite his earlier claims that Rambo was done and over. As Sean Hood told Empire in reference to the matter:

"I met with Mr Stallone twice last year...He gave me a book, an older screenplay, and about twenty pages he'd written himself to use as inspiration for the last chapter of the Rambo saga...It's more in line with the small-town thriller of First Blood."

Sylvester Stallone in Rambo

It's made clear in the article that the cartel and monster plotlines originally rumored for Rambo 5 have indeed been scrapped and thrown out; whatever this new script is, we haven't heard mention of the details and Hood isn't giving them up at this juncture.

It's hard to get too excited, or invest too much speculation and/or opinion in Rambo 5 right now - a lot of us already did that once, and look where it got us: nowheresville. It's certainly good to hear that the creature-feature story has been tossed, though the cartel story had potential; the notion of what Rambo's "Last Stand" will entail is also intriguing, as is the the question of how Hood's script would tie the events of this (alleged) final film to the experience of First Blood.

I'm sure that these questions (and more) will soon be addressed (and hopefully answered) in the coming months. For now, are you happy that Rambo 5 is back on, or were you content to let the franchise end with part IV?

Sources:  Fear Net, Empire via The Playlist