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Sylvester Stallone’s RAMBO was the franchise’s fourth episode in 2008, but it wasn’t called RAMBO 4 in the U.S. since the first film here was titled FIRST BLOOD.

In other countries, the original episode was renamed RAMBO after the unexpected success of Stallone’s 1982 low budget action thriller FIRST BLOOD for Orion and Carolco Pictures. That led to the title RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD II for the 1985 sequel, which did $300M worldwide. Stallone wanted the new franchise named for his character, just as he’d done with his ROCKY series. So that made 1988’s episode RAMBO III, not FIRST BLOOD III.

The series’ fourth film opened Jan. 25, 2008 via Lionsgate and starred Stallone, who directed it. He also co-wrote its screenplay (with Art Monterastelli), based on the character created by David Morrell in his 1972 novel “First Blood.” Morrell’s character was known only as Rambo, but he became John Rambo in the movies.

The 2008 film was released as RAMBO 4 in some global markets, including Russia. In France and Germany, it was known by its original working title, JOHN RAMBO (French poster pictured). That name wasn’t used domestically because Stallone felt moviegoers here would think using the character’s full name pointed to the end of the RAMBO franchise.

Another earlier title that came and went was RAMBO: TO HELL AND BACK, which recalled Universal-International’s 1955 action bio-drama TO HELL AND BACK, starring World War II hero Audie Murphy as himself. Morrell has credited Murphy with inspiring his character Rambo. But by 2008, Murphy was no longer someone moviegoers would instantly recognize.

RAMBO’s title wasn’t its only behind the scenes drama. Miramax had acquired the RAMBO franchise rights in 1997 after Carolco, the original producer, went into bankruptcy. Miramax wanted to make a fourth RAMBO, but Stallone wasn’t ready to do it then. In 2005, Miramax sold its RAMBO rights to Nu Image and Millennium Films, who gave RAMBO a green light prior to Stallone’s ROCKY BALBOA opening in late 2006.

Back in 1985 with the series’ first sequel, RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD PART II, there was talk about casting John Travolta as a Rambo sidekick. James Cameron (TITANIC) had written an early screenplay where Rambo had a partner. But Stallone, who shared final screenplay credit with Cameron, wanted to keep the spotlight only on Rambo. Ironically, when the original FIRST BLOOD was coming together in the late ’70s, one of the actors being buzzed about to play Rambo was — John Travolta!

Meanwhile, Rambo lives on! Lionsgate just announced that JOHN RAMBO, a prequel to 1982’s FIRST BLOOD, is now in production in Bangkok. Directed by Jalmari Helander (SISU), it stars Noah Centineo as Rambo in his early years as a Green Beret during the Vietnam War.