FIRST OFF . . .

Morocco, Israel . . . Yuma, Ariz.? So it goes for locations on Sylvester Stallone’s “Rambo III,” which begins filming in the desert border town this week, according to production sources and a story in the Yuma Daily Sun. Charles Barnett, president of the Yuma County Chamber of Commerce, said a Los Angeles casting agency hired by Carolco Pictures Inc. has placed advertisements announcing that up to 200 Yuma-area residents will be hired as extras, as will Marines--playing Soviet soldiers!--imported from a Marine Corps Air Station nearby. U.S. Bureau of Land Management officials in nearby El Centro, Calif., issued a commercial building permit to Carolco, so that the company can build structures that it will be using in the filming. According to the Daily Sun’s story, a small Carolco contingent has been in the Yuma area most of December scouting possible filming sites, but an additional 150 production crew members will begin working in the area next week, the paper reported.