One of Hollywood’s biggest stars for the last four decades has been Sylvester Stallone and it turns out that even the man who has ruled cinema – and now TV with Tulsa King – for that long can have regrets.
In a newly resurfaced interview from last year, Stallone discusses his career and reveals that one of his biggest regrets is not developing [another] three of his blockbusters into franchises.
Over the years, he has had more than his fair share of franchises with Rocky, Rambo and The Expendables but there’s been a lot of his movies that even fans knew could have – or should have – been franchises: Judge Dredd should have been the start of a massie comic book universe, Cliffhanger had more than enough potential for a sequel (and yes, I know it almost happened with Stallone and apparently is getting the reboot treatment now) and personally, I always felt that Demolition Man and Tango & Cash, which also starred FTN favourite Kurt Russell, should have had more installments and it seems Stallone himself agrees… and is honest about why these didn’t happen and how he feels about that.
“My biggest regret is that I didn’t do Cobra’s franchise, Tango & Cash and Demolition Man,” the star says in the interview, “I felt each one of those had at least three movies in them… I was just, I guess, maybe too lazy.”
Cobra (1986), you may be shocked to hear, is one of Stallone’s only movies that I haven’t seen, but man, the fan in me is as full of regret as Stallone that we didn’t get more cop-buddy shennigans in a Tango and Cash (1989) sequel.
But, I must say, the movie of his that most deserved more installments has to be 1993’s Demolition Man.
Telling the tale of a modern-day (1990s modern-day) cop, John Spartan (Stallone), who did anything he needed to get the bad guy, who is cryogenically frozen for a crime he didn’t commit, only to be awoken in a future where political correctness has led to a fascist society where people aren’t allowed to talk freely and the only takeaway is Taco Bell. He’s brought out of cryogenic slumber to get the one psychopath he never could stop, Simon Phoenix, played with incredible manic energy – he’s basically the Joker – by a never-better Wesley Snipes.
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Thankfully, like in Demolition Man, we seem to have turned a corner on the political correctness that almost led us to a Demolition Man-esque future, but in the movie, it felt like, while Spartan changed the course of the world, there was still a long way to go and another couple of movies could have told that story, a story I would have loved to have seen,
But, look, as it is Cobra, Tango and Cash and Demolition Man all stand as classic action standalone movies, and that’s no bad thing; they’re there to be enjoyed, and that’s not something to regret.
Though a Demolition Man trilogy would have been something to be excited about…
Thoughts? I know you have them and I wanna hear ’em all.
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Marc
Marc is a self-confessed nerd. Ever since seeing Star Wars for the first time around 1979 he’s been an unapologetic fan of the Wars and still believes, with Clone Wars and now Underworld, we are yet to see the best Star Wars. He’s a dad of two who now doesn’t have the time (or money) to collect the amount of toys, comics, movies and books he once did, much to the relief of his long-suffering wife. In the real world he’s a graphic designer. He started Following the Nerd because he was tired of searching a million sites every day for all the best news that he loves and decided to create one place where you can go to get the whole lot. Secretly he longs to be sitting in the cockpit of his YT-1300 Corellian Transport ship with his co-pilot Chewie, roaming the universe, waiting for his next big adventure, but feels just at home watching cartoons with his kids….
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