John Rambo is a man of consistency. When Sylvester Stallone released Rambo: First Blood Part II in 1985 there were some who felt that it has a slight right-wing bent. We don’t like to look for hidden meanings in a film where a man takes out a helicopter with a bow-and-arrow, but, hey, those yamheads on talk radio have to come up with something. Now it’s 2008 and the Rambo with no number, set in the jungles of Myanmar, is said to be inspiring students in that country to rebel against the socialist dictatorship that has ruled the country under a military junta for years.

Perhaps they just want to have Myanmar change its name back to Burma (or, at the very least, Burma: First Blood Part II) but Reuters announced this weekend that police in Myanmar are cracking down hard on anyone selling a DVD of Rambo. According to the report “people are going crazy with the quote ‘Live for nothing, die for something’” and are using it as a rallying cry for the growing democracy movement. See - we aren’t the only ones who are moved by Sly’s words!

In a statement released in Paris (Paris? What’s Rambo doing with the French?!?) Sylvester Stallone was quoted by the Associated Press as saying “Students have now used this film as a rallying point and are using the quote, thinking maybe the American military will intervene and save them.” UGO previously reported that Sly picked Myanmar as the setting for his latest Rambo installment after conferring with “Soldier of Fortune” Magazine in an attempt to find the least reported human rights abuses in the world.

We salute Sly for a) bringing the issue of the suffering Burmese (or Myanmarese or whatever) to light, for b) doing it in such a kick-ass way and c) for not getting all whiny like Lars Ulrich about the concept of pirated DVDs. Indeed, the film in question is not available in Myanmar through any “legal” means.

Rambo, however, is still playing at a theater near you. And he needs your support.

Sylvester Stallone has signed a multimillion-pound deal to direct and star in two new action films.The actor will join forces with Rambo producers Danny Dimbort, Avi Lerner and Trevor Short of Nu Image/Millennium Films following the success of his recent Rambo and Rocky sequels. He told the Hollywood Reporter: “The past year and a half of working with Avi, his partners Danny and Trevor and his film family has been nothing but a high point for me and my career and an extremely rewarding experience. Avi is a real gentleman and a man of his word.”Stallone’s 2006 film Rocky Balboa grossed $70 million, while the fourth installment in theRambo franchise took $18.2 million in its opening weekend in the US last month.The 61-year-old is said to be looking at scripts for further movies in both series, despite previously insisting that the recent sequels would be the last.He is also separately working on a remake of 1974 vigilante drama Death Wish.Studio boss Harvey Weinstein recently said he wants to make a fifth Rambo movie before Stallone gets too old.

Director Oliver Stone, a vocal critic of the Bush administration’s handling of Iraq, is putting together a feature film project about the current president, and has tapped Josh Brolin (No Country for Old Men) as his George W.

Stone, who’s shopping around a script completed pre-strike by his Wall Street co-writer Stanley Weiser, told Daily Variety that he does not intend to make a stridently anti-Bush movie, but instead wants to use a style similar to that of The Queen to explain Bush’s motivations and rise to prominence. ”People have turned my political ideas into a cliché, but that is superficial,” Stone told the trade paper. ”I’m a dramatist who is interested in people, and I have empathy for Bush as a human being, much the same as I did for Castro, Nixon, Jim Morrison, Jim Garrison, and Alexander the Great,” he said, referring to the subjects of his previous films. Stone also asserted that his film will aim to offer a ”fair, true portrait” of Bush, and will contain surprises for both fans and detractors of the president.

Filming on Bush could start as soon as April. As for Stone’s other recent project, a movie about the My Lai massacre called Pinkville, UA has pulled the plug, citing reasons related to the writers’ strike — but Stone told Variety he hopes to get that script back and revive it.