Author: Craig

Sly is a Hollywood Double Threat

Craig / / 2014

On October 26, 2014, Wall Street Cheat Sheet posted 7 Hollywood Double Threats Who Can Act and Write by Kristen Klahn.  Here’s what was said about Sly…

Stallone is probably most well-known for his roles in the Rocky films. Interestingly, he didn’t just play the part of a boxer — he also wrote the scripts, starting with the 1976 film Rocky. According to an excerpt from The Official Rocky Scrapbook, Stallone was inspired to write the script after attending the Muhammad Ali/Chuck Wepner fight. Wepner was supposed to lose quickly, but instead the fight went 15 rounds, and he was able to establish himself as “one of the few men who had ever gone the distance with Muhammad Ali, and he can hold his head up high forever no matter what happens,” Stallone wrote.

What do you think?

In The Official Rocky Scrapbook, Stallone states: “That night I went home and I had the beginning of my character. I had him now. I was going to make a creation called Rocky Balboa, a man from the streets, a walking cliché of sorts, the all-American tragedy, a man who didn’t have much mentality but had incredible emotion and patriotism and spirituality and good nature even though nature had not been good to him.”

What do you think?

Stallone went on to write the screenwrites for the remaining Rocky films, in addition to many others, including Paradise Alley, Staying Alive, Over the Top, and Cliffhanger. He also wrote the screenplay for Rambo: Last Blood, which is in pre-production, and has two more writing projects in the works: Rambo: The TV Series and Creed.

Trisha Yearwood and the Rocky Connection

Craig / / 2014, Celebs

Trisha Yearwood has a new album called Prizefighter: Hit After Hit  and the cover features Yearwood in a long dress wearing screen worn boxing gloves used (and given to her) by Sly Stallone after the filming of Rocky V.

 

David “Soop” Frison’s “Rocky” Tribute

Craig / / 2014, Rocky

I recently received the following e-mail with the attached video…

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Hi Craig,
David Frison again.
I hope your well.
I was in Philadelphia for the first time a couple of months ago, only for a few hours.
You can imagine that I made it count!! 😉
 
I only shared this video with less than 10 persons, as it is very personal and/or one must know and love Rocky.
Then I thought about you and us all on StalloneZone.com
 
I also feel like sharing that NONE of the photos I took were planned that way.
The framing just HAPPENED to be near perfect matches every time.
I suppose that from having seen the movie once or twice ;-), my subconscious visual memory served me right.
Peace!
David “Soop” Frison
www.DavidFrison.com
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What an amazing [and amazingly well done] tribute! Thanks for sharing!  –  Craig

Mike Torrance Takes Us “Over the Top”

Craig / / 2014, Craig's Sly Art, Over the Top

Today Mike Torrance aka The Krayola Kidd takes us Over the Top!

Over the coming weeks/months I’ll be posting more of Mike’s sketch card commissions.  My goal is to eventually get a card for every character Sly has played.  We’re well on our way!

You can see more of Mike’s art at his Deviant Art site. Mike is available for commissions and his prices are very reasonable.

 

How “Cliffhanger” and “First Blood” Were Affected by Test Screenings

Craig / / Cliffhanger, First Blood

On October 10, 2014, Den of Geek posted 51 Movies and How They Were Affected by Test Screenings.  Two of Sly’s movies, Cliffhanger  and First Blood  made the list.

 

CLIFFHANGER

Interesting one, this. In the trailer for Renny Harlin’s 1993 hit Cliffhanger, Sylvester Stallone is seen jumping from one cliff to another. It’s a 40 foot leap, and when test audiences were presentated with this, they guffawed. The reason? They just didn’t buy it could be possible. As such, the jump was re-edited – ironically needing the help of some CG work – to make the jump appear shorter. Nobody guffawed. It made it to the film.

FIRST BLOOD

Another ending story this one, and in this case, Sylvester Stallone probably owes the test audiences of his first Rambo film a cut. In the original story, John Rambo perished at the hands of Trautman. This is also what happens in the novel upon which Rambo is based.

Yet the test audiences were not happy with this, and demanded that Rambo lived. Sylvester Stallone duly obliged, along came a new ending, and when Rambo went on to be a huge hit, the sequel – First Blood: Part II – followed shortly.

Now, Stallone is getting to work on Rambo 5. Every time he does a balance enquiry at his local brand of NatWest, he must do a silent grin to himself…