Sylvester Stallone has been teasing the development of Rambo 5 for months now, but in that time the casting department has been silent. We've known that Stallone will return as his second most iconic character in the sequel, but there has been no news regarding his co-stars. That period ended today, however, as Paz Vega has reportedly signed on for a key role and has become the second member of the movie's ensemble.
Titled Rambo 5: Last Blood (a reference to the original John Rambo movie, First Blood), the new film will see the titular hero facing off against the Mexican drug cartels when he learns that the daughter of a friend has been kidnapped. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Paz Vega will be a key ally of the gun-loving Vietnam veteran John Rambo, playing a character named Carmen Delgado.
The trade report describes the character briefly, and notes that she has two significant connections to the main plot. The first is a professional connection, as she is a reporter whose beat is the Mexican drug trade. The second is that the young girl who is kidnapped is her sister.
Paz Vega's career started back in the late 1990s when roles on multiple Spanish television shows, but her big breakout came when she played the titular role in Sex and Lucia in 2001. She made her Hollywood debut opposite Adam Sandler and Tea Leoni in Spanglish, and has continued to go back and forth between work in Spain and America. Recently she was featured in the first season of the series The OA on Netflix.
While Paz Vega is the first actor we've heard about starring opposite Sylvester Stallone in Rambo 5: Last Blood, apparently that hasn't stopped the production for barreling ahead. The trade report revealing Vega's announcement notes that the movie is already shooting, with locations set up in Bulgaria and Spain. Adrian Grunberg, who previously directed the Mel Gibson action movie Get The Gringo, is at the helm for the second time in his career, with most of credits being for his work as a second unit director.
Sylvester Stallone is credited as the co-writer on the film with Matthew Cirulnick, whose most significant credit is the Amazon original series Absentia. The actor has had a hand in the scripts for all of the Rambo movies to date, so it makes all the sense in the world that he would have a hand in bringing the franchise to a close.
Millennium Films is producing the film, though exactly when and how it will wind up getting to audiences is unclear. Not only does the project not have a release date yet, but it also doesn't appear to have a domestic distributor. This is definitely a project we're keeping an eye on, so be on the lookout for more updates here on CinemaBlend.
