Who's ready for more Rambo?

You can pretend like you don't want a fifth Rambo, America, but we know better -- the surprisingly strong attendance and lukewarm reviews that greeted this year's fourth installment offered nothing but encouragement to Sylvester Stallone. And though he's offered decidedly mixed signals to the press regarding the franchise's future, recent developments would seem to indicate that Stallone is ready to strap on the bandana again -- and sooner rather than later.

Last week, Slashfilm picked up on a Screen Daily report saying that Rambo 5 was ready to roll -- and that producers had tabbed Sofia, Bulgaria for the shoot. This sparked a wave of discussion about potential storylines for the sequel, and confusion regarding what many perceived as a setup for Rambo's return to America at the end of the fourth film.

Over the weekend, Moviehole's Clint Morris rode to the rescue, offering word from "a reliable contact" that Rambo will, in fact, be coming home to the U.S. of A....or a reasonable facsimile thereof, anyway. Per Moviehole's scooper, "The street sets of Bulgaria that are getting the makeover, the same ones that were rented out and used in Van Damme's The Shepherd, will be doubling for Rambo's hometown, which is supposed to be somewhere in Arizona."

In a word: Awesome.

As Morris points out, Bulgaria has actually served as a stand-in for locations both American (Lake Placid 2) and otherwise (Hitman, The Grey Zone). Going to Bulgaria is typically a sign of less-than-plentiful budget dollars, but hey, who needs money? Just hand Stallone a big ol' knife and a tank top. He'll do the rest.

This is all just conjecture, of course, but if it turns out to be true, it would seem to put a crimp in those rumors of Stallone starring in a Death Wish remake or Cliffhanger 2, which just goes to show you that there really is a silver lining in every cloud.

Source: Slashfilm
Source: Screen Daily
Source: Moviehole