One of the biggest controversies spreading across the Internet on Monday was whether or not actor Sylvester Stallone will reprise his role as troubled Vietnam War veteran John Rambo in the fifth installment of the popular movie series, which is supposed to have Last Blood as its working title and terrorists from ISIS (the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) as the villains.
However, Ryan Reed of the Rolling Stone website reported during Monday afternoon that “Stallone will not be battling ISIS in the next sequel, despite inaccurate reports circulating the Internet.”
According to many online posts, “the 68-year-old actor made the revelation during an unannounced appearance at San Diego Comic-Con last week to promote the next Rocky movie.”
“The Hollywood legend” was supposed to battle “global terrorism” in the film. He was also supposed to write the script for the movie.
Ryan noted that “a representative for Stallone denied those claims, … noting that the actor did not attend Comic-Con 2015, and consequently, there was no official remark from him regarding Rambo made there at the event.”
“This is not an accurate report,” the representative added.
Nevertheless, an article written by Sarah Malm for the Daily Mail British newspaper's website asserted that the actor responded to a question about the likelihood of another Rambo movie.
“We are working on it right now, actually,” Stallone was reported to have said.
He supposedly added:
We have teams scouting Iraq and parts of Syria where ISIS have their greatest strongholds.
We're working with the locals there to help deliver the most intense and realistic Rambo movie experience ever.
“Although several members of the audience tried to ask follow-up questions,” Malm stated, “the actor refused to divulge any further information about the film, which has the working title Rambo: Last Blood.”
“A statement released in June last year appeared to confirm that the ISIS line is not something Stallone made up on the spot,” the reporter noted.
"With Rambo V, Sylvester Stallone returns in his iconic role as John Rambo. This time, he returns to the Middle East to battle the greatest threat facing the world today, global terrorism,” the statement by German movie company Splendor Films read.
“This is not the first time the former U.S. Army Special Forces soldier flies in to fight in the Middle East,” Malm asserted.
The third installment, released in 1988, saw John Rambo travel on a solo mission to Afghanistan during the Soviet-Afghan War to rescue his old Vietnam commanding officer.
“Up until 2001, the film ended with the quote: 'This film is dedicated to the brave Mujahideen fighters of Afghanistan,'” Malm noted.
However, “after the September 11 attacks and the subsequent war in Afghanistan which saw many Mujahideen fighters ally themselves with al Qaeda,” she continued, “the dedication was changed to 'the gallant people of Afghanistan.'”
Actually, “Stallone is currently promoting Creed, the seventh Rocky Balboa movie, which will focus on Adonis Creed, the son of Rocky's one-time nemesis, Apollo,” Malm correctly reported.
“The young fighter (played by Michael B. Jordan) wants to follow in his late father's footsteps and enlists Rocky to help him train,” she stated.
Reed wasn't the only person to expose the story as a hoax. Josh Feldman of the mediaite.com site posted an article entitled: “No, Sylvester Stallone Did Not Say ISIS Will Be in Next Rambo Movie.”
After listing many headlines that excitedly reflected the inaccurate information, Feldman stated: “Yes, sites like Business Insider, The Independent and Foreign Policy Magaazine are all reporting this morning” that Stallone made the surprise announcement on Friday.
“Except that he never actually said that,” the reporter noted before noting:
If you go down the link wormhole to point zero, you’ll find the original source of the report was from one of those stupid parody hoax sites.
The URL for the main page is washingtontimes.com.co (the co is the giveaway it’s not really the Washington Times, guys).
“Here’s the last paragraph of the post,” he asserted, “to really hammer home how obvious it was that this is a hoax story:"
Did Stallone suggest he would employ actual ISIS militants for a new Rambo film? All calls to his publicist as of press time have not been returned.
Apparently, the moral of this story is: Don't believe everything you read on the Internet – except on NewsBusters, of course.
