Hollywood Face-Off: Rambo vs. bin Laden

By C. Young

11/27/2001 at 11:29 AM EST

Veteran action movie producer Menahem Golan is forecasting a storm of movies about counter-terror operations. He knows of at least five such films going into production, including "Rambo IV," which was in pre-production before Sept. 11, and went into rewrites afterwards. "It was already about fighting terror, but they wanted to adjust the story to reflect the developments," said the producer of such steroid-and-hand-grenade epics as "Death Wish" and "Delta Force." "I anticipate a lot of stories about global operations against terrorists approximating what is going on now in Afghanistan, but there won't be any images of domestic devastation like we saw in New York and Washington. An exception to this might be bin Laden, the arch-villain. I could see a film about him after it's all over, perhaps with Ben Kingsley (best known for 'Gandhi') in the role." Meanwhile, Robert Greenwald, producer of over 40 movies, said the recession would have more influence on Hollywood. "Economics trumps everything in this business," he told The Nation. "Prior to September 11, we were already feeling an enormous recession in my world of cable, network and independent feature films. And since September 11, it has already gotten radically worse . . . Funding is drying up all around us."