by Iain Blair

Went to meet Sly Stallone at the Four Seasons to talk about his new film, “Rambo 4,”and got a very interesting window into shooting on location in Asia. In “Rambo 4”.. it’s twenty years after the last film in the series, and John Rambo has retreated to northern Thailand, where he’s running a longboat on the Salween River. On the nearby Thai-Burma(Myanmar) border, the world’s longest-running civil war, the Burmese-Karenconflict, rages into its 60th year. But Rambo, who lives a solitary, simple life in the mountains and jungles fishing and catching poisonous snakes to sell, has long given up fighting, even as medics, mercenaries, rebels and peace workers pass by on their way to the war-torn region. Of course, all that changes when some human rights missionaries are held hostage and it’s Rambo to the rescue….. Although he’s early ‘60s now, Sly, who writes,directs and stars, and who filmed on location in and around Chiang Mai,Thailand, looks in great shape. “But it was a bitch of a shoot,” he told me.“Where we were was very primitive – and the truth is, the Far East is a dangerous, unpredictable place. You can get hurt and disappear very easily… it was also tough because of the heat and the burning season. They burn to clear the land and we were all choking….” Sly reports that he had a crew of 500 and spent three months in the jungle in “extreme conditions. But I told everyone at the time, ‘Guys – mark this down as the last great adventure of your life. No one’s ever gonna do this again. I don’t know anyone crazy enough to do this movie again!”

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 15th, 2008 at 2:52 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.