Los Angeles: Nu Image/Millenium Films have acquired the rights to the Rambo film franchise from Miramax/Dimension Films. The shooting for ‘Rambo IV’, also titled ‘Holy Wars’, is scheduled to begin in Sofia, Bulgaria, in January 2006. Filming also scheduled in the US and, India! Of the script, Sylvester Stallone has reportedly said John Rambo has been ‘assimilated into the tapestry of America’, and is living in peace, working with the UN. Work pressures force him and his family to the American outback, where the former Green Beret’s family comes under an onslaught by white supremacists. However, an early draft of ‘Holy Wars’, freely viewable online, revolves around a different race-situation. Rambo is an environmentalist working at the UN headquarters in New York when it is besieged by Islamic terrorists. The twist is Rambo knowing his Afghani-adopted son is part of the terrorist squad.

The role of UN Secretary General Amit Talian, in the ‘Holy War’ draft, has been written especially for Amitabh Bachchan! And Rambo’s Afghani-American stepson is slated to be played by Hrithik Roshan!

The treatment note describes the character as similar to Altaf in ‘Mission Kashmir’, and

calls him ‘in many ways, the “Rambo for the twenty-first century”. — rediff.com