Sylvester Stallone is no stranger to dusting off old characters. He keeps bringing John Rambo back. He swore he was done with Rocky Balboa, but we’ll see about that. One film he’s never done any sequels to is Cliffhanger, his rock-climbing thriller where he dukes it out with an English-accented John Lithgow. That all changes now with word that he’s doing a “reboot” that just sounds like one of those belated sequels.
As per The Hollywood Reporter, Stallone will return, for the first time in 30 years, as Gabe Walker, professional mountain climber and rescue ranger. They’re calling it a reboot, but a reboot implies that the new one is essentially starting from scratch. But unless it ignores the events of the first movie, then it’s really a sequel. But who knows? Maybe this really is a reboot that just happens to feature the same character/star from the original, and they’ll never talk about that time Gabe had to fight criminals.
A Cliffhanger sequel has been in development for a while. At one point it was to be helmed by A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night director Ana Lily Amirpour. She remains on as an executive producer, but now it will be directed by Ric Roman Waugh, of Angel Has Fallen and Greenland, with a script by Hunters writer Mark Bianculli.
The 1993 Cliffhanger found Stallone’s climber/rescuer, still reeling from losing someone on the job, battling a gang of thieves in the Colorado Rockies. It was a decent hit, though not big enough that Stallone kept returning to the role like he has with other characters. Or maybe he decided doing mountain climbing stunts was not something he wanted to do that often.
(Via THR)