76-year-old Sylvester Stallone will he climb the snowy peaks again in a sequel to the cult Cliffhanger?
Cliffhanger: Hunt for the Top landed on the big screen on October 6, 1993, restoring the hair of the beast to the career of Sylvester Stallone. The latter had just suffered several consecutive flop with The mess is in the bag, Stop or my mother will shoot or Demolition Man.
With 255 million dollars collected at the worldwide box office (for a budget of 75M), Renny Harlin’s film is a great success. In France, it attracts 2.6 million spectators. At the time, a sequel was being considered by TriStar Pictures.
The project even has a title: Cliffhanger: The Dam. After traveling through the Rocky Mountains in the first film, Gabe Walker (Stallone) had to confront terrorists who had taken control of the Hoover Dam on the border between Arizona and Nevada.
The company will not go further than the first stage of development. In 2008, The Dam will come out of a drawer for a new attempt. This one won’t work either. The following year, StudioCanal announced that Cliffhanger 2 was back on track with Neal H. Moritz in production.
Unfortunately, this new test will remain a dead letter. 4 years later, we learn that Joe Gazzam (future screenwriter of the series The Equalizer) will write a new version of the screenplay. But history repeats itself and the project returns to the bottom of a drawer.
In May 2015, Stallone posted a set photo of Cliffhanger on Instagram stating that he would love to do a sequel to the film. “even if the first opus was probably his most dangerous project.”
4 long years later, in 2019, a female reboot was announced with Ana Lily Amirpour directing and Sascha Penn writing the screenplay. There was even talk of Jason Momoa playing in it. Rebelote, this company will not go further than the stage of the first developments.
On April 13, 2021, Stallone toyed with fans’ nerves by posting a photo of Cliffhanger again with this comment: “Hang on! Something huge might happen (this is not a sequel).”
What was the actor referring to? We haven’t had any news of a project around Cliffhanger. What did he mean? A TV series in the same universe as the film?
A prequel with a young Gabe Walker? We will probably never know. Either way, a Cliffhanger sequel isn’t on the cards. In the meantime, you can find Stallone on Paramount+ in Tulsa King.