As filmmakers continue searching for more efficient ways to make movies, the subject of AI keeps rearing its meticulously rendered head. Recently, while speaking with ScreenRant, Sylvester Stallone said he’d been working on his own Rambo prequel before John Rambo, the project starring Noah Centineo as the badass Green Beret, came along, and that he considered using AI to recreate his younger self.

Stallone on toying with using AI for a Rambo prequel

While speaking with ScreenRant’s Liam Crowley about his defunct Rambo prequel, Stallone said:

“I wanted to do the first AI… not retroactive… but I wanted to rewrite history of the earlier Rambo because I wanted Rambo to be the nicest guy in the school, the valedictorian, the prom king, and all that stuff.

And when he goes to Vietnam, he thinks it’s going to be a three-week hit-and-run, and you see him being tortured and captured, his friends murdered, one thing after another, and [his] life in Saigon. And that’s how I became the way I became, but originally I was bon vivant–that kind of thing. And I thought, “We could do this with AI,” but [we] procrastinated too long and they took it over and, I hope, you know, good luck.”

Granted, I’m not a filmmaker, but the thought of a Rambo prequel starring an AI-generated John Rambo makes me feel dirtier than Major Alan “Dutch” Schaefer after a mud bath to avoid the Predator. De-aging actors is one thing, but using the technology to create a character whole-cloth is some uncanny valley territory I would not want to investigate. I don’t know that general audiences would be into it either. AI is a hot-button topic worldwide, but audiences are mostly opposed to any form of AI entering their entertainment. AI is certainly a point of contention in the video game industry, where countless developers, artists, and others are losing jobs left, right, and center. Imagine being told to teach the AI your creative techniques, then being fired once the top brass feels the AI is smart enough to replicate your efforts. It’s disgusting. I could be down for a Rambo animated series, but recreating the character using AI for a full-blown feature? No thanks.