Author: Craig

SZ Exclusive Behind the Scenes: Rocky Balboa

Craig / / 2010, Celebs, Family, Frank Stallone, Rocky Balboa

SlyStalloneFan is back with some exclusive behind-the-scenes photos from the filming and premiere of “Rocky Balboa.”

“Hello Craig. As you know, I truly admire your work and I enjoy visiting the StalloneZone. I recently was going through some of the pictures I have that were taken during the time Rocky Balboa was filming in Las Vegas. Seeing the Rocky Balboa movie being filmed in front of my eyes, was/is a dream come true. The level of excitement that I had was unbelievable. I thought I share some of the pictures with you and the wonderful zoners and hope you enjoy them as much as I did enjoy being part of the filming. Thanks.   I apologize if some of the pictures are not in best quality.

Sly & Jen @ “Black Swan”

Craig / / 2010, Family, Jennifer Flavin-Stallone

On November 12, 2010, BroadwayWorld.com posted a bunch of great photos of celebs in attendance at the AFI Fest 201 Presented by Audi — Closing Night Showing of “Black Swan”…

  • Sylvester Stallone and wife Jennifer Flavin arrive at the ‘Black Swan’ closing night gala during AFI FEST 2010 presented by Audi held at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre on November 11, 2010 in Hollywood, California.

To see other photos of Sly as well as Natalie Portman, Darren Aronofsky, Juliette Lewis and others, click here.

“Cliffhanger” – One of the Best

Craig / / 2010, Cliffhanger, Honors

On November 11, 2010, MMN.com posted a piece by Matt Hickman called: “Mountain Phew: 5 Pulse-Raising Movies that Involve Climbing Very Steep Hills.” “Cliffhanger” made the list at #3…

#3 “Cliffhanger” (1993) Sylvester Stallone saves the day when he foils a massive heist being carried out by a nefarious group of thieves — lead by John Lithgow, but of course — trying to get their hands on $100 million in uncirculated cash. Sound like a generic heist thriller? It kind of is. However, the film’s stunning, stunt-worthy, and Stallone-appropriate setting, the Rocky Mountains, made “Cliffhanger” a box office smash.

To see the classic “Cliffhanger” trailer as well as the other four choices, click here.

“Rocky” One of the All-Time Best

Craig / / 2010, Honors, Rocky

On November 11, 2010, Rope of Silicon posted “The Five Greatest Boxing Films of All Time” by Bill Cody.  I’m happy to say that “Rocky” made the cut coming in at #2.  Here’s why…

Whatever you say about Sylvester Stallone, and a lot of people do, he wrote one of the greatest scripts of all time. Loosely based on Muhammad Ali’s fight with Chuck Wepner, Rocky is pretty much a perfect movie. Stallone was the right choice to play the washed up palooka from Philly and smart enough to insist the studio use him.

I could go on and on about this film. The casting, (Burgess Meredith, Burt Young and Jason Schwartzman’s Mom are all wonderful) the gritty way it was filmed, the soundtrack that would have been completely hokey in any film other than the tale of an outlier who finally catches the brass ring. But why go on? It’s Rocky. Like my choice for #1, it won the Oscar for Best Picture. And it’s the blueprint for almost every sports movie that has been made since it came out. Enough said.

To read the whole article, click here.

Sly the Original Choice For… Part II

Craig / / 2010, Celebs, Unmade Films

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.

Stallone Says Sheen May Be Expendable

Craig / / 2010, Celebs, Expendables 2

Charlie Sheen has had his share of ups and downs.  This week wasn’t an up… until word got out that Sly had talked to Sheen about a potential role in The Expendables II.  It wasn’t long until the news was showing up at…