Craig Zablo's StalloneZone

Sly’s “Expendables 3″ Tweets Make the News

Craig — Sun, 19 May 2013 05:46:53 +0000

As you can see, Sly sent out several tweets about Expendables 3 this week. As you can imagine, this made for interesting news items…

SuperHeroHype: Sylvester Stallone…
Digital Spy: Sylvester Stallone Gives…
ScreenCrush: Expendables 3…
The Fan Carpet: Action Hero Sylvester…
Twitch: Mickey Rourke…
Flickering Myth: Sylvester Stallone…
HitFix: Mighty Mickey Rourke…
Yahoo! Movies UK: Mickey Rourke…
Daily Blam: Sylvester Stallone…
Den of Geek: The Expendables 3…
Comic Book Resources: Sylvester Stallone…
The Inquistor: Expendables 3…

Sly, King and “The Last Cop”

Craig — Sun, 19 May 2013 05:30:30 +0000

It was announced this week that Sly and long-time friend and business partner, Kevin King would serve as executive producers for The Last Cop, a new series in development for TNT.

The Last Cop is based on a popular German television series. Mick Branigan is a cop who has been in a coma for 20 years. He wakes up to find that his wife has moved on, he has a daughter he doesn’t know and a world very different from the one he remembers.

CNN Entertainment: TNT and TBS…
ACE Showbiz: TNT and TBS…

Sly Connections to Christopher Moloney’s FILMography

Craig — Sun, 19 May 2013 05:01:02 +0000

Christopher Moloney is the talent behind FILMography – “…an ongoing art project… that matches scenes from movies with their real-life, present-day locations” in photographs taken by Moloney.

Here are two examples that feature Sly connections…

First up we have John Travolta (above) in Staying Alive.

Next, we have Sylvester Stallone and Jack Lemon from The Prisoner of Second Avenue.

Thanks to Mark Evanier for his post pointing me in the right direction.

Cory Walker’s Rocky

Craig — Sun, 12 May 2013 13:52:17 +0000

This week we have Rocky by Cory Walker. Cory is an amazing artist and I got this sketch as a bonus for buying his sketchbook.

Moreno’s “Get Carter” Teaser

Craig — Sun, 12 May 2013 13:44:00 +0000

SZoner, Gerardo Moreno has sent in a teaser about his forthcoming Get Carter art which will soon be available as a canvas print! – Craig

Sly Playing American Football

Craig — Sun, 12 May 2013 13:34:57 +0000

Above: #22 is Sly in an action shot from his high school football days.

Below: Sly after the game.

Thanks to SZoner, Mike Kunda for sending in the scanS. - Craig

Escapism with Pelé and Stallone…

Craig — Sun, 12 May 2013 13:26:38 +0000

On May 11, 2013, The Copenhagen Post ran a piece by Bjarke Smith-Meyer called, Escapism with Pele and Stallone on the Set of a Cult Classic. Here are some tidbits…

“That bicycle kick took forever,” he (Søren Lindsted) said, rolling his eyes. “We spent hours trying to get it to work. In the end we just had cut it into sequences and put it together in the editing room. Pelé ended up having to just throw the ball up in the air and do the bicycle kick that way. Anything else would have been impossible.”

Stallone, despite being a staunch Everton fan, had never kicked a football in his life prior to filming. Nor did he understand the dynamics of the game. According to an interview with Ipswich player John Walk, the American wanted his character to score the winning goal at the end of the film − despite him being the goalkeeper.

“I suppose he (Stallone) was the big star given his recent success with ‘Rocky’ at the time,” Lindsted said. “He’d show up on set with three to four bodyguards and kept his distance most of the time. He even had a separate table where he ate with his entourage during lunch. If we ever ventured too close, we’d be asked to quickly move on. But then he was the star. Everything revolved around him.”

“He (Stallone) would always be very focused and intense on set,” Lindsted said.

Mike Torrance’s Balboa Card

Craig — Sun, 05 May 2013 15:39:56 +0000

Mike Torrance aka The Krayola Kidd returns with his final (for a while) Rocky card.

You can see more of Mike’s art at The Daily Sketch with The Krayola Kidd (and if you’ve never checked out Mike’s site, you ought to if only to see his Walking Dead cards!) and his Deviant Art site. Mike is available for commissions and his prices are very reasonable.

Will Antonio Banderas Become Expendable?

Craig — Sun, 05 May 2013 15:17:08 +0000

Earlier this week Sly sent out a tweet that read: “Antonio B. …? Could be.”

This, of course, led to speculation that Banderas could show up in Expendables 3.

Screen Crush weighs in on the idea. As for me, I’m for it. - Craig

New Stallone “Bullet to the Head” Interview

Craig — Sun, 05 May 2013 15:01:11 +0000

On May 2, 2013, the St. Augustine Times posted Sly Stallone: The Bullet to the Head Interview. Here are a few tidbits:

KW (Kam Williams, interviewer): Let me start by asking what interested you in Bullet to the Head?
SS: Well, I liked the idea of a very simple story with a dark morality. There’s humor in that later on, but you start with the basic idea that you have two total opposites having to work together for a common cause who you know are going to have to take each other out at the very end, at least that was the original premise. I also really liked the idea of doing it with Walter Hill after the first director bowed out. That made the project especially enticing.

SS: Yes, and also because he’s kind of gone down the same path as I did. There was a period when I was pretty much untouchable for about 8 or 9 years until I got a big break with Joe Roth when he helped produce Rocky Balboa. That was a big, big, long shot. Everybody thought it was a joke, but it worked. [Chuckles] I think there’s a lot of music left to play in a lot of these old instruments. And I felt that Walter Hill is a pro at this genre, yet he’s not getting the opportunity. So, when I saw the opportunity present itself, I decided, “If he does the movie, I’ll do it.” And it worked out that way.

KW: Larry Greenberg asks: How did you develop your character, Jimmy Bobo?
SS: I decided to approach it this way. I, Sylvester Stallone, am really not much like Rocky. Rocky is a much more ethical, moral person than I am. [Chuckles] He’s really a great guy. And Rambo is a much darker person than I am, and much more reserved and withdrawn. I thought, let me try something different. What if I, Sylvester Stallone, were transported into the world of hit men? In other words, what if I were the hit man but just played myself. So, that’s the way I approached this character. I wanted to be as casual and comfortable with the character as possible. I said, if Sylvester Stallone were a hit man, this is how he would be. So, pretty much what you see up there is Sylvester Stallone as a hit man. Rather than trying to create a character that was different from me, I tried to make the character the same as me, and just add the story. I don’t know if that makes sense to you. It’s like as if you were going to play a hit man and asked me, “What do I do?” And I went, “No, no, you Kam, you just have to play yourself.” It would be your personality, but you would play a hit man. That would be an interesting choice. That’s different. That’s unusual. So, this was the first time I’ve ever said, “Let me just be myself, but pretend I’m a hit man.”

KW: Is there a message you want people to take away from the film?
SS: That a tiger never really changes his stripes and that Jimmy Bobo is what he is, without regret. But he’s not an amoral person, since he only takes out, as he puts it, “the hard to get at stains.” That his job. He takes out the trash. In effect, he’s doing a service. He’s a people person. He removes the bad people.