Sai Mawng, a 40-year-old retired Shan resistance officer, has been enlisted to play the role of a barbarous Burmese commander in Sly Stallone's upcoming fourth "Rambo" film.

Revealing a title change to the simpler moniker of "John Rambo" this week in Australia, Stallone confirms that principal photograpy is slated to officially begin this Friday.

Burmanet though revealed the new casting addition, and word that some filming has already being taken place in Keudchang, a village tract in the Mae Taeng district of Thailand's Chiang Mai province.

Mawng used to serve with Lt-Col Khun Kyaw, Commander of the Shan State Army (SSA) South's 241st Brigade who is currently languishing in a Burmese prison after being forced to surrender early last year.

According to the story line posted by the film crew, Rambo is hired by Christian missionaries while working as a snake hunter in Thailand to deliver medical and religious supplies to the persecuted Karens of Burma. The missionaries are captured and Rambo is saddled with the job of rescuing the surviving missionaries.

Shan migrants sare said to offered themselves to play as Burmese soldiers in exchange for 300 baht ($ 8.6) per day plus meals for two months.