London, Jan 18 (IANS) Action star Sylvester Stallone did not want to use Afghanistan or Iraq as a backdrop for the latest in the Rambo series, which he also directs, because he did not want to offend troops stationed there right now.

Thesun.co.uk quoted him as saying: 'I thought it would be an insult to the men who are fighting, to think that a fictional character could come and change everything. I thought Burma would be more real.'

The movie is titled 'Rambo' and it finds the protagonist leading a solitary life in the mountains and jungles of northern Thailand. But he has to return to action when a group of human rights activists find him and plead with him to guide them to Burma to deliver medical supplies. Rambo has to rescue them when the Burmese army captures them.

'You have one small area with peasants being overwhelmed by this brutal military force. They are picked out because they are Christians and Rambo is an atheist at this time and he had lost most of his humanity. I wanted to do something more spiritual and visually interesting,' he said.