Alright now this story kinda made me laugh. Last year, in the weeks leading up to the release of Rocky Balboa, Sylvester Stallone participated in a series of candid Q&A segments with readers over at Ain’t It Cool News. I thought it was a great promotional move, as it helped Stallone gain credibility within the online film community, and allowed him to shed his reputation as an egotistical musclehead. But now, with the new Rambo film on the way, it seems like Sly is starting to get way too involved with his online P.R. and worrying about internet buzz a lot more than he really should be (in my opinion).

Last week it was announced that Lionsgate had changed the name of John Rambo to the slightly more edgy Rambo to Hell and Back. I didn’t bother posting because I really didn’t think it was particularly noteworthy, but I understood that the move was probably an attempt to distance it from Rocky Balboa. Fair enough. What was surprising was that apparently people around the internet simply hated the new name… they hated it so much that Stallone was forced to phone up the official Ambassador of the Nerds, Harry Knowles over at Ain’t It Cool News, to ask his advice. It turns out that Stallone was contemplating a name change only because he thought John Rambo implied that this would be the final Rambo film, which might not be the case. In the end, he asked Harry what he thought of the alternative title Rambo: Blood River, at which point Harry said that John Rambo sounded fine to him. (Uh, yeah… if Blood River was the only other choice then I think I’d stick with John Rambo too!) So Stallone agreed to change the title back to John Rambo, and there you have it. The internet has made a difference! High fives all around guys! Meanwhile, poor Stallone is so worried about his career that he’ll do anything the interweb tells him to. Hey Sly, give us Over The Top 2 next, okay? Just make sure you call it “Lincoln Hawk”.

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