VANCOUVER -- A wood carving that celebrates Hope, B.C.'s connection to the Rambo movie franchise has been given the thumbs up from Sylvester Stallone himself.
The actor posted on Instagram that he's "very proud" of the muscular statue of his iconic character, John Rambo, which was carved mostly using a chainsaw.
As Stallone pointed out, the small community is "exactly where we shot 'First Blood,'" the original movie in the Rambo series, which came out in 1982 and eventually spawned four sequels.
He also gave a shout out to the artist, Ryan Villiers of Edmonton.
Hope has long embraced its ties to the blockbuster action series – the town's website offers a map for self-guided tours of the filming locations – and local tourism promoter Brian McKinney reached out to Villiers last year to commission the carving.
The artist, who only started sculpting with wood a few years ago, told CTV News he was honoured to be chosen for the piece, which he hopes will draw visitors to the town for years to come.
He said it was "highly stressful" trying to accurately capture the look of the character, but he was relieved to learn that Stallone approves of his work.
"Yeah, that was the icing on the cake," Villiers said. "It was tremendous, really cool."
The carving wasn't the first celebrity likeness Villiers has worked on – he made a life-sized statue of George Wendt's character Norm from "Cheers" last year – and it probably won't be his last.
He told CTV News he's already been approached about possibly doing a piece in Toronto dedicated to Canadian comedy legend John Candy.
"It's funny, I was talking to a good friend of mine about (wanting to carve) John Candy a couple months ago," he said. "I'd be pretty pumped if I got that one to do."
Some of the "First Blood" filming locations that remain in Hope include the Othello Tunnels and Wallace Street. Unfortunately for die-hard fans, the Kawkawa Bridge – where Rambo is sent away from town by a local sheriff who takes him for a drifter – was demolished years ago.
