In recent years the Rocky movies have been the gift that kept on giving for Sylvester Stallone, thanks to the surprise success of Ryan Coogler's Creed and its follow-up. We'll see how Rambo: Last Blood fares on its release this weekend. And, Stallone never having met a sequel he didn't like, has yet another idea for revisiting a former glory. He's keen on another adventure for Tango & Cash. His co-star Kurt Russell, on the other hand, might need some persuading...
“I would do Tango & Cash in a second,” Stallone told Fandango. He's even discussed it with Russell, by the sound of things quite recently, but the response was apparently somewhat equivocal: "'I don’t know, Sly… There we were in our prime and now we’re in our un-prime, I dunno...' So I said, 'Kurt, I’m telling you, ya gotta go in on this.'" According to Stallone, the pair put a pin in the conversation to revisit at a later date.
For those unfamiliar, Tango & Cash was a 1989 action-buddy-comedy about two LAPD cops (Stallone's buttoned-up Raymond Tango and Russell's gonzo Gabriel Cash) framed for murder by their arch-enemy Jack Palance. Escaping from prison, they go on a none-more-80s action rampage to clear their names. Terri Hatcher, Brion James, Robert Z'Dar and Michael J. Pollard were among the co-stars. Pollard plays a bizarre sort of underground Q-branch character who builds our heroes a souped up RV/tank for the final showdown. It's that sort of movie.
It's a lot of fun, but very much of its time, and only really fondly remembered by a relatively niche audience. So it's not quite clear how another instalment would work, 30 years later. Russell's hesitation might be well founded. But it's a nice idea nevertheless.
In the same interview Stallone also reveals that his idea for a streaming TV series based on the barking mad Cobra is now with Robert Rodriguez at Rod's El Ray network. Whether Stallone intends to return to the role of Marion "Cobra" Cobretti ("Bruce Springsteen with a gun; rock meets drama") or pass the torch to a younger actor remains to be seen.
Rambo: Last Blood is out today.