Right around the time that Sylvester Stallone was finishing new installments in his Rocky and Rambo franchises, it was made clear that more movies in each franchise was not completely out of the question. Some times has passed, Stallone is nearing the completion of his next flick, The Expendables, and it is being reported that Rambo 5 has indeed been greenlit.

Nu Image/Millennium Films, who also handled The Expendables, were the ones who gave the go-ahead to this new Rambo project. The movie’s premise looks to take John Rambo away from the jungles and toward the United States/Mexico border, where he will take on human being traffickers and drug lords while attempting to rescue a kidnapped little girl.

The first three movies in the franchise, First Blood (1982), Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985), and Rambo III were action movie staples of the ’80s. The movies all starred Stallone as a Green Beret Vietnam veteran who, after realizing he has no place is normal civilization, uses his immense stable of violent talents to assist in important, high-risk operations. In 2008, they picked the series back up with Rambo, which reintroduced us to John Rambo, who was living a quiet life in a Thai village, selling snakes when he was contracted to help some humanitarians travel up river to Burma, which obviously doesn’t go to well. The movie was unbelievably violent, even compared to the first three, and it also served as a harsh reminder of the very real problems taking place in Burma.

Stallone is again expected to star and direct the project, but no word whether he’ll write it. The star has been handling all three duties lately, so it is probable that he’s penning the script, as well.

[Source: Variety]