Sylvester Stallone won’t be starring in the Bollywood ‘Rambo’ remake.
The 71-year-old actor starred as Vietnam War veteran John Rambo in the four movies in the franchise which began with the critically acclaimed ‘First Blood’ back in 1982, and now the story is getting the Bollywood treatment with a new film being directed by Siddharth Anand.
Tiger Shroff is take on the role of Rambo but Stallone has ruled himself out of filming a cameo in the re-imagining of his second most famous Hollywood alter ego behind boxer Rocky Balboa.
Speaking to Deadline through a spokesperson, Stallone said: "Any involvement in Tiger Shroff’s ‘Rambo’ is not happening, under any circumstances. I wish them well on their own."
At the Cannes Film Festival this year, Shroff – who has starred in ‘A Flying Jatt’ and other Hindi films – insisted his version of the iconic character will not take anything away from Stallone’s version.
The 27-year-old actor said: "They have made the character unique and so when I will portray Rambo, I don’t want to take anything away from that. But at the same time, I want to give my own take. I don’t want to mimic it."
Shroff also revealed he is hoping to get to meet Stallone, 71, before filming commences ahead of the movie’s proposed 2018 release
He said: "The ‘Rambo’ remake is one of my most exciting projects. I am very scared and excited. Scared because I have big shoes to fill and excited because it is something up my alley and I really want to go all out for the film. I am definitely planning to meet Stallone, that’s in the pipeline."
Stallone is as busy as ever and is working on the sequel to ‘Creed’ which is set bring back infamous ‘Rocky IV’ character Ivan Drago, the Russian boxed played by Dolph Lundgren.
Stallone reprised his role as Rocky Balboa for a seventh time in the 2015 movie, a performance which earned him the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture.
The Ryan Coogler directed movie revolved around Rocky’s friend and most famous opponent Apollo Creed’s son Adonis and his quest to follow in his father’s footsteps to become a professional boxer.
Rocky is persuaded to train Adonis and leads him to victory in a fight against Ricky Conlan.
In ‘Rocky IV’ Apollo (Carl Weathers) comes out of retirement to fight Drago but is killed in the ring and a vengeful Rocky vows payback against Drago and flies to Russia to train for a Christmas Day fight.