The Amazing Spider-Man comic book author Dan Slott has hobnobbed with some well-known people over the years. Sometimes this means sitting down to dinner with famous people he may not initially know are famous people, as happened during a dinner with Rambo creator David Morrell, who penned First Blood. Years later, Slott admitted he still thinks “about this” meeting quite “a lot.” Here’s why.
In a rundown on threads, Dan Slott opened up about a night he went to dinner with some heavy hitters in the writing industry. Among them were fellow Marvel comics writers Peter David, Brian Reed, Mike Carey, and First Blood’s Morrell. He said Morrell told the story about Rambo going from book to the big screen, and how his agent really went to bat for him… despite the author really try to fight him every step of the way. Here’s how it went down, per his story on Threads:
Morrell wanted to write the screenplay for FIRST BLOOD. The studio wanted their guys. Morrell's agent capitulated, but said he wanted it put into the contract that David would get first crack at writing the screenplay for a sequel. Morrell was confused. He said, ‘Sequel? But Rambo dies at the end.’ His agent said, ‘Shut up. I know what I'm doing.’
Obviously, we know now that Rambo became a giant five-movie franchise for Sylvester Stallone, and also for the many people who collaborated or became a part of the franchise. But Morrell may never have really gotten a cut of what would come later if he hadn’t had an agent that was super bullish about possible later opportunities. Slott explained:
The agent fought for a cut of any Rambo action figures. Morrell said, ‘But he's a crazed Vietnam Vet who dies at the end.’ His agent said, ‘Shut up. I know what I'm doing.’ The agent fought for a cut of any Saturday morning cartoon about Rambo. Morrell said, ‘But he's a crazed Vietnam Vet who dies at the end.’ His agent said, ‘Shut up. I know what I'm doing.’ You can pretty much guess where the rest of the story went. Morrell said he was so glad he had THAT agent. I think about this a LOT.
Dan Slott's known for sharing opinions on Spider-Man, but in this case I'm glad he went a little off topic to tell this Rambo story. Certain people come into your life for an age or a season, and this agent obviously made a huge difference in terms of monetary add value for his Hollywood client.
If his manager hadn’t fought for things like “action figures” and sequels, he likely would have been cut out of that process, and it could have been another instance of a creative screwed out of the almighty dollar. (A fact that often happens in the comic book industry.) But his agent looked after him, and it made all the difference.
Rambo went on to make four sequels, including the more recent Rambo: Last Blood, not to mention a whole f–kton of other merch. It's nice knowing the creator got a piece of that pie.
