Sly Stallone Event Raises $100, 000 for Charity


On February 24, 2012, The Spec.com posted a piece titled Sylvester Stallone Event Raises $100, 000 for Charity.  Here are some highlights:

  • “Rocky is done,” Stallone told about 900 people who paid to hear him in support of the Canadian Diabetes Association.
  • Stallone, in a question and answer session with movie critic Brian Johnson, did not rule out making another Rambo film.
  • Stallone said he did not set out to become an action star and that he was the 11th actor offered the role of Rambo in First Blood.
  • He has starred with such actors as Robert De Niro, but admitted to turning down roles in movies which could have changed his career. He turned down appearing in two Quentin Tarantino movies, as well as American Gigolo, An Officer and a Gentleman and Coming Home. He said turning down the latter film “was very foolish,” but he admitted he had his doubts if he could have been good enough for the searing drama, which eventually starred Jon Voight, Jane Fonda and Bruce Dern.


Sly’s Unmade Epic

Remember when Sly was interested in getting a film adaptation of Franz Werfel’s The Forty Days of Musa Dagh going? Well, Yigal Schleifer at The Atlantic does and quotes Sly in his piece Armenia’s Doomed Quest to Recruit Steven Spielberg

  • For years Stallone’s wanted to create an epic, and the book that intrigues him is Franz Werfel’s “The Forty Days of Musa Dagh,” detailing the Turkish genocide of its Armenian community in 1915. (After futile attempts to turn the novel into a movie, filmmakers finally succeeded in 1982, but it was a low-profile production.)
  • French ships eventually rescued some Armenians, and Stallone has his favorite scene memorized: “The French ships come, and they’ve dropped the ladders and everybody has climbed up the side. The ships sail. The hero, the one who set up the rescue, has fallen asleep, exhausted, behind a rock on the slope above. The camera pulls back, and the ships and the sea are on one side, and there’s one lonely figure at the top of the mountain, and the Turks are coming up the mountain by the thousands on the far side.
  • “A pretty great shot.”
  • The movie would be “an epic about the complete destruction of a civilization,” Stallone said. Then he laughed at the ambition. “Talk about a political hot potato. The Turks have been killing that subject for 85 years.”

 

Sly the Original Choice For… Part II

Last week Moviehole posted the bottom half of their Top 50 Original Casting Choices.  Of course Sly made that list several times.  This week Moviehole is back with their Top 25 and Sly again makes the cut…

  • 15. “Face/Off” (1996) – Sylvester Stallone vs. Arnold Schwarzenegger

    The big studios always tried to pair up action stars Stallone and Schwarzenegger. When the script for “Face/Off” landed in his pigeonhole, Captain Hollywood read it with an eye to ultimately casting the two biggest names in action in the film. By the time director John Woo was hired to helm the film a couple of years later, Stallone and Schwarzenegger’s appeal had started to wane and, amusingly enough, John Travolta and Nicolas Cage’s stars were on the rise again – thus, the latter twosome got the job.

  • 10. “Masters of the Universe” (1987) – Sylvester Stallone as ‘He-Man’Either because there was no money in it, or Sly didn’t like the idea of dying his hair blonde, he passed on the offer to play the burly cartoon character on the big screen. Sly suggested Dolph Lundgren, whom he had worked with on “Rocky IV”, would be a much better fit. He was right… not that it did much for Lundgren’s career.
  • 5. “The Expendables” (2010) – Wesley Snipes as ‘Hale Caesar’

    Sylvester Stallone had wanted his “Demolition Man” co-star to play the role Terry Crews ended up playing in the hit actioner. Snipes was interested, but the film was due to lens in Brazil, and the actor’s tax problems meant that he couldn’t leave the USA. Forest Whitaker ultimately took on the role – even rewriting it – but was forced to leave a few days before production due to a scheduling conflict. Stallone then went to Curtis ’50 Cent’ Jackson but when he got wind that his fans weren’t happy with that decision he handed the part to brawny footballer cum actor Crews.

Sly: Original Casting Choice for…

On October 26, 2010, Moviehole posted the first part of Clint Morris’ article titled 50 Original Casting ChoicesSly made the list twice so far:

  • 50. The Terminator (1984) – Sylvester Stallone as ‘The Terminator’

We’ve all heard the stories of O.J Simpson (James Cameron’s favourite to take on the role before coming to the humorous conclusion that America wouldn’t believe such a ‘nice guy’ could be a killer) and Lance Henriksen (He did a great screen test, arriving to the office in character, but wasn’t quite Terminator material. Instead, Cameron cast him as a cop in the film) being up for the T-800, but did you know Sylvester Stallone was actually offered the role of the time-travelling assassin? Sly passed not long before Cameron got wind of Arnold Schwarzenegger, actually.

  • 40. Beverly Hills Cop (1984) – Sylvester Stallone as ‘Axel Foley’

You all know this one, right? Sly was originally cast as Axel Foley in a more action-centric, less-comical “Beverly Hills Cop” movie. Sly ultimately abandoned the project (all the tinkering with the script turned him off) and the project was later rewritten for “48 Hours” and “Trading Places” funnyman Eddie Murphy.

You can check out the other original casting choices here.

Sly a Great Choice to Direct…

Film School Rejects posted their choices for who should direct the movie adaptation of Halo.  Guess who is listed as their first choice?  Here’s what they had to say…

The Pitch: It’s really quite simple. Does Halo have guns? Is Halo a “Mature” rated video game? Is there the equivalent of military personnel? Well, then who better to helm what should be a considerably violent picture than the man who would arm his actors with tank cannons that produce Tom Savini-esque destructive results?

Truth be told this pick is based on my experience with the multi-player aspect of the first game, as that is the extent of my exposure with the Halo series. I never played through the single player mode and therefore cannot justify Sly’s selection on any kind of storytelling match. What I do know is that the game has blood, brutes and bullets, and no active director does the combination of the three with as much gratuitous enthusiasm as Stallone. Any writing issues you may have with Rambo or The Expendables are irrelevant as the Halo script has already been written by someone else. Sly would just need to come in and do what he does best, which is to paint the town red. – Adam Charles

For the full list click here.

Sly & DeNiro in a Grudge Match?

Earlier today Slashfilm reported on a rumor that Sly Stallone and Robert DeNiro may team up for “Grudge Match.” Sly and DeNiro would play…

… “retired boxers Billy “The Kid” McGuigan and Henry “Razor” Sharp, lifelong bitter rivals who are coaxed out of retirement and into the ring for one final grudge match — 50 years after their last title fight.”

Although fans would love to see Rocky take on The Raging Bull, I’m not sure now is the time for this type of movie.  Sly has Expendables II on deck and then hopefully something like Hunter or even Expendables III.  And let’s face it, according to the synopsis of Grudge Match, Sly and DeNiro were supposed to have fought 50 years ago in a title fight — so they’d have been what 14, 15 years old? Perhaps when Sly and DeNiro have aged a bit, Grudge Match would be right.

You can read the full report here.

Dream Cast: Sly as Batman

Since the day that Frank Miller’s Dark Knight Returns mini-series was published fans have been praying for a big screen adaptation.  A few years ago, Miller said that Sly would be his choice to play Batman should the film ever be made.

On July 25, 2010, ComicBookMovie.com posted their choices should Miller’s Dark Knight Returns ever make it to the silver screen.  I think their casting is excellent… especially Zack Snyder to direct, Christopher Lee as Alfred, Tim Curry as The Joker, Bruce Willis as Harvey Dent, Michael Ironside as Olver Queen and of course Sly as Bruce Wayne.  You can check out the full dream cast here.