Sylvester Stallone is ready to embrace AI. During an interview on “The Overlap” podcast, the Oscar winner said that he received backlash for trying to get a “half human, half AI” movie off the ground but he didn’t care because “AI is here to stay.” Stallone did not mention the project, but he’s spoken previously about a failed pitch to use AI so he could play a young Rambo on the big screen.
“I get in trouble for this [but] AI is here to stay,” Stallone said on the podcast. “I wanted to do half-human, half-AI and put it together, and of course everyone’s going nuts. I go, ‘That’s happening, guys. People are selling their images. There’s going to be 20 Elvis avatars … This is happening.’”
Stallone continued, “I would take that risk, even though you get blasted bombastically from the creative community. And their [complaints are] right! They’re right. But we can’t stop this. It’s an avalanche. It’s just out of our control. If you don’t go with it, you will be trampled by it.”
A “John Rambo” origin story movie is currently in the works with “Street Fighter” and “To All the Boys I Loved Before” actor Noah Centineo taking over the title role. Stallone is not involved in the movie but did previously try to make a young Rambo movie with himself back in the role via AI and de-aging VFX.
“Everyone thought I was crazy,” Stallone said on the “Bingeworthy” podcast last year. “AI is sophisticated enough to go through Saigon to see him at 18 years old and basically use the same image. So it isn’t as big a stretch.”
During his interview on “The Overlap,” Stallone acknowledged that AI will make it increasingly difficult for new actors to break into the industry, explaining to young performers: “You’ve just chosen the most difficult profession in the world. And it’s going to get more difficult because of AI. I know my daughter [Scarlet Rose Stallone] is an actress. I said, ‘Please get into gaming. Do something [else].’”
Watch Stallone’s full interview on The Overlap in the video below.