Sly on Death Wish

Sylvester Stallone is almost ready to blast bloody hell out of Burmese militia in the impending RAMBO, but he recently took a few moments to discuss another helping of violence he may dish out, his remake of DEATH WISH.

In the 1974 Chuck Bronson vigilante flick (which spawned an increasingly awful series of sequels), the protagonist was initially a pacifist. Sly (who’s considering writing, directing and starring, as with RAMBO) says that to update the story for the present, he’d make the scenario “volcanic” and the character “completely violent, an ex convict who walked the walk, was accepted back into society and did everything he could to be a [good person] like these thieves and junkies who now work on the side of the law. They’ve gone that way, but when something happens he reverts back to that guy.“

Stallone gives a little more: “What if it happened to you, that your daughter was grabbed and her eyes were put out? Would you want to sit there and defend that guy? There’s moral questions here that are being presented that have not been answered in 30 years.“

However, what we have seen in 30 years is precisely this sort of revenge tale (average Joe/reformed convict/retired military man/former assassin experiences tragic life event, seeks furious vengeance) already done to death, as recently as DEATH SENTENCE and THE BRAVE ONE. So Stallone will have his work cut out for him if he wants to make something with more impact than a paintball. I’d rather see him get his POE movie made, personally…