Why the New Cliffhanger Just Lost Sylvester Stallone

Cliffhanger is back on the mountain, but not the way it was supposed to be. What started as a proper Sylvester Stallone sequel turned into a full-on reboot with Pierce Brosnan in the lead, thanks to a mix of money demands, scheduling snags, and a lawsuit that lays out how it all unraveled. If that sounds messy, that is because it was.

Quick rewind: what made Cliffhanger click in the first place

Renny Harlin’s 1993 original (co-written by Stallone and Michael France) was peak icy-peak action: Stallone’s Gabe Walker and his rescue crew respond to what seems like a routine distress call in the Rockies, only to find it is a setup by a ruthless thief named Eric Qualen. Millions of dollars are at stake, the weather is lethal, the heights are ridiculous, and Walker has to outmaneuver the bad guys across the cliffs. Simple, tense, very vertical.

So what is the new movie now?

Row K is releasing the new Cliffhanger on August 28, 2026. It is not a continuation anymore. It is a reboot starring Pierce Brosnan and Lily James, directed by Jaume Collet-Serra and written by a tag team of Ana Lily Amirpour, Sasha Penn, Mark Bianculli, and Melanie Toast.

The setup: Brosnan plays Ray Cooper, an elite mountaineer who runs a luxury chalet in the Dolomites with his daughter, Naomi. A supposedly cushy weekend trip with a billionaire’s son turns ugly, kidnappers crash the party, and Naomi — still dealing with the fallout from a tragic climbing accident — is forced into a brutal survival run through the mountains as the attackers close in. If you are thinking, wait, that sounds like a sequel idea with different names, you are not wrong.

How this turned from a Stallone sequel into a reboot

There was a real window in 2023 when the plan was Stallone returning as Gabe Walker. Ric Roman Waugh was set to direct from a script by Mark Bianculli. Waugh’s pitch was essentially this: Gabe runs a mountaineering company in the Italian Alps with his daughter and a protege; a tragedy echoes the opening of the original; then the family drama collides with armed intruders. That version started moving fast, then hit a wall.

According to a complaint filed by producer Neal H. Moritz, Stallone agreed to slot the film into fall 2023, just before Tulsa King season 2. But he wanted his pay guaranteed up front and locked in escrow. The financiers at Rocket Science Industries did not provide that guarantee. The lawsuit is blunt about it:

"Rocket Science failed to secure Stallone’s commitment to do the Picture because it refused to guarantee Stallone’s fee."

Even as Moritz and his producing partner Toby Jaffe cut together a sizzle reel imagining Sly as the lead and shopped it to sales agents, time kept slipping. With Stallone’s status unresolved, Waugh exited. Jean-Francois Richet came in to keep the train moving, with Melanie Toast jumping on script work. When production slid into 2024, the overlap with Tulsa King — combined with no guaranteed fee — prompted Stallone to walk.

Russell Crowe was briefly in the mix as a replacement, but the role ultimately went to Pierce Brosnan. At that point, the film stopped pretending to be a sequel. Gabe Walker was written out and replaced with Ray Cooper, and the core story stayed nearly identical.

Why this is all coming out now

Moritz is currently suing Rocket Science Industries, claiming they stiffed him on a $2.5 million producer fee. His suit says that in May 2024, both he and Jaffe were asked to defer their entire fees due to budget strain. Among the reasons cited: losing Stallone reduced pre-sale guarantees in Spain, Latin America, and Scandinavia; director and lead-actor costs came in higher than expected; and lenders insisted the producers hold their fees to keep the financing together. Moritz and Jaffe maintain they warned Rocket Science they were overspending on talent. Deferrals do happen on indie films, but asking a top-tier producer to push the whole fee is unusual — and there is always the risk deferred money never fully shows up.

The long road here (yes, it has been decades)

• 1994: A sequel called Cliffhanger 2: The Dam is announced — Gabe vs. terrorists at the Hoover Dam — but it never happens.
• 2009: Producer Neal H. Moritz starts developing a reboot.
• 2014: Joe Gazzam is hired to write a script.
• Mid-2010s: Fred Dekker writes a version titled Cliffhangers. Scrapped.
• 2019: Ana Lily Amirpour signs on to direct a female-led reinvention. That iteration stalls.
• 2023: Sequel plans heat up again. Stallone is poised to return as Gabe Walker. Ric Roman Waugh directing from a Mark Bianculli script. Waugh later exits; Jean-Francois Richet steps in. Production drifts into 2024; Stallone leaves over fee and scheduling.
• 2024–2025: The project locks as a reboot. Pierce Brosnan boards as Ray Cooper. Jaume Collet-Serra directs. Lily James co-stars.
• 2026: Row K sets an August 28 release.

What actually changed onscreen

Not much, which is the interesting part. The reboot’s bones are basically the 2023 sequel plan: father-daughter mountaineering outfit in the Italian Alps/Dolomites, a traumatic event, and then a siege that spills into a high-altitude survival chase. The difference is swapping Gabe Walker for Ray Cooper, and Sylvester Stallone for Pierce Brosnan. If you are curious whether the tone will tilt more survival thriller than quippy action, Collet-Serra’s filmography suggests it might lean muscular and propulsive.

The bottom line

Stallone did not bail because he lost interest in Glacier-Fu. He wanted his pay guaranteed and the schedule to line up, and neither happened. That triggered a cascade: director change, production delay, lost star, script pivot, new lead, and now a lawsuit alleging the financing plan never supported the star they were selling. The irony: the finished movie appears to be telling the same story they were building for the sequel — just with new names on the rope team.

We will see if the final cut can scale the same heights. At the very least, it sounds like they kept the part everyone paid to see in 1993: people dangling off cliffs while everything goes sideways.