Sylvester Stallone will not be rock climbing again in the Cliffhanger reboot. Instead, Lily James and Pierce Brosnan will headline the reimagining of Cliffhanger, with Carry-On’s Jaume Collet-Serra directing.
In May 2023, Stallone signed on for a Cliffhanger sequel with Ric Roman Waugh directing from a script by Mark Bianculli. Per Variety, Stallone and Waugh are out of the reboot after a creative overhaul. Ana Lily Amirpour, best known for A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night and Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon, penned the new script for the reboot.
Cliffhanger’s ensemble includes Nell Tiger Free, Franz Rogowski, Shubham Saraf, Assaad Bouab, Suzy Bemba, and Bruno Gouery. Filming has begun in Austria.
The Cliffhanger reboot will be a father-daughter story. Per the official synopsis, “Brosnan will play seasoned mountaineer Ray Cooper, who operates a luxury chalet in the Dolomites with daughter Sydney. During a weekend trip with a billionaire’s son, they are targeted by a gang of kidnappers. Ray’s daughter, Naomi (James), still haunted by a past climbing accident, witnesses the attack and escapes. To save her family, she must confront her fears and fight for survival.”
In 1993’s Cliffhanger, Stallone starred as a climber forced to battle a group of criminals searching for $100 million they lost after a botched heist. Directed by Renny Harlin, Cliffhanger’s cast included John Lithgow, Michael Rooker, Janine Turner, Leon Robinson, Paul Winfield, and Ralph Waite. The film grossed $255 million worldwide against a $70 million budget.
Cliffhanger is a Rocket Science project in partnership with Thank You Pictures and Supernix. The reboot will seek a theatrical release.