Category: Rocky 6

The “Holdup” on “Rocky VI”

Craig / / 2003, Celebs, Rocky 6

The New York Post’s Cindy Adams’ December 8, 2003 column, says that “Rocky VI” is being held up because of producers Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff.

Everything else is in place. MGM likes Sly’s script and would finance the movie. Sly is willing to forgo his usual multimillion dollar salary and instead work for a percentage of the profits. The only sticking point is that Winkler and Chartoff are playing hardball for up front money.

I hope that this is just a rumor but you can read the entire piece and decide for yourself.

  • Craig Zablo

Sly Guests on AMC’s “Shootout”

Craig / / 2003, Cop Land, Rocky, Rocky 6, TV

Sylvester Stallone Guest Stars on AMC’s ‘Sunday Morning ShootOut’ on December 7 at 11 AM

for Sun. (Dec. 7) –(BUSINESS WIRE)–

AMC‘s weekly half-hour series, “Sunday Morning ShootOut,” hosted by Peter Guber and Peter Bart, brings the smarts and spin of Sunday morning political shows to the world of entertainment.

THIS WEEK’S GUEST: Actor, writer and director Sylvester Stallone. Since achieving worldwide fame with Rocky, which won an Oscar for Best Picture in 1976, Stallone has acted and co-written such successful films as First Blood, Rambo: First Blood Part II, and Rambo III. His acting credits include Get Carter, Driven, Demolition Man and Copland, which garnered him international critical and audience acclaim. Most recently, Stallone has completed filming Avenging Angelo, co-starring Madeline Stowe.

DISCUSSION TOPICS: 1) The producers of Rocky offered you $150,000 to cast Ryan O’Neal in the title role. What made you turn it down? 2) Why did you agree to take a major pay cut for the film Copland? 3) Lost
Souls Seeking Redemption, Rocky VI — is this a parallel to your own life and life experiences? 4) Your upcoming Rampart Scandal delves into the murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls. What made you choose this piece and how did it come about?

WHEN: The episode will air on Sunday, December 7 at 11 am ET/PT on the AMC cable network. The episode can also be viewed at http://movies.yahoo.com, beginning at 12 Noon (PT).

BACKGROUND: “Sunday Morning ShootOut” is a new, half-hour weekly series on AMC hosted by entertainment industry veterans, Peter Guber and Peter Bart. Guber is the chairman of Mandalay Pictures, former CEO of Sony Pictures, the producer of dozens of Hollywood‘s most successful movies including Midnight Express, Batman, Rainman, Basic Instinct. Bart is editor-in-chief of Variety, and former Hollywood reporter for The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. In his career as an executive at Paramount Pictures and as president of Lorimar, Bart played a major role creating classics like The Godfather, Rosemary’s Baby and The Postman Always Rings Twice.

Like other Sunday morning debate shows, the sparks fly here as prominent producers, directors, writers and stars join the hosts to debate all sides of the week’s biggest stories in the world of movies and entertainment. The experts provide informed and spirited perspectives on the winners and losers at the box-office, the rising and falling fortunes of the stars and studios themselves and the emerging trends that are forever reshaping the business of entertainment.

The pic above comes from an ad in Entertainment Weekly and the text from Business Wire. – Craig Zablo

Rocky VI: I Ain’t Heard No Bell

Craig / / 2003, Celebs, Rocky 6

On Thursday, October 16, 2003, MovieHole received a tip from ‘Going Greek’ that “Rocky VI” may not ne as dead as some have reported since “Spy Kids 3” proved Sly’s still got appeal. “The Rocky VI”…screenplay’s done, and it’s quite good – very reminiscent of the first film. In other words, lots of character detail… The opponent of the movie is a guy called Excel, who’s just your typical new-age smart arse athlete. The audience is going to be begging [that] Rocky gives this guy a thumping. Talia Shire is ready to come back too [as Adrian]”.

MovieHole also reports that Sly’s Biggie and Tupac flick is “…shaping up superbly.”

A tip of the hat to Ernie “The Erndog” McHone, Ernest “Jazzman” Resendes and Dark Horizons. – Craig Zablo

A Rocky Road

Craig / / 2003, Avenging Angelo, Celebs, Champs, D-Tox, Driven, Eye See You, Family, Get Carter, Rocky, Rocky 6, Shade, Unmade Films

A Rocky Road
Sylvester Stallone is in training for another comeback
BY MARK CARO for the Chicago Tribune
Posted on Tuesday, July 29, 2003

AUSTIN, Texas — Sylvester Stallone is climbing back into the ring, figuratively in “Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over” and literally in a sixth “Rocky” movie.

Yes, he has already written “Rocky VI,” which he’s calling “Puncher’s Chance,” the title referring to the idea that once in the ring, any fighter has a chance to land a knockout punch. Stallone — with “Spy Kids 3-D” the only one of his last four movies to actually make it to theaters — is looking for that shot as well.

“Rocky made his moment when he’s 29 years old,” a fit-looking Stallone, who turned 57 on July 6, said while in Austin for the “Spy Kids” premiere. “Now time has moved on, but how do you participate when your options are pretty limited? It’s not as though he’s a painter or a world traveler. He is a fixture in the neighborhood. The neighborhood is decaying. Do you decay with it? And when you try to fight back, (you’re told), ‘It’s ludicrous. Come on! Move on! Don’t be so vain.’

“It’s not about vanity,” he continued, his familiar gravelly voice turning soft. “It’s about, ‘I know I don’t feel as though I’ve hit the bottom. I haven’t dredged the bottom of my well yet, I don’t think.’ There’s a point when you sit back on your life, and you’re on your final days going, ‘You know? I did it all.’ And I don’t know if I’ve done it all. The character.”

These last two words were said as a reminder that he was talking about Rocky, not himself.

But he knows he can’t escape the parallels. Like his most famous character, Stallone has gone from top-of-the-world star to afterthought — a $20 million-per-movie action hero whose most recent efforts have bombed (“Get Carter,” “Driven,” the latter of which he wrote) or, worse yet, haven’t even received a U.S. theatrical release (“D-Tox,” also known as “Eye See You,” “Avenging Angelo,” “Shade”).

“Spy Kids 3-D,” which opened Friday, at least will get him in front of large audiences again. He plays the comical villain, the Toymaker, who has designed a video game that ultimately imprisons the minds of its players. The character’s goofiness manifests itself in multiple personalities that argue with one another: a bald, professor type, a blustery European military commander (Stallone refers to him as “Gooselini”) and a stringy-haired hippie. For good measure, Stallone also plays a TV reporter.

Like most of the movie, his scenes were shot in front of green screens so that computerized scenery and special effects could be added later. Aside from a climactic confrontation with Ricardo Montalban, who plays the Spy Kids‘ wheelchair-bound grandpa, Stallone is mostly acting with himself.

How did he feel about acting without other actors? “I’ve been doing that for the last 10 years,” he quipped, laughing.

Stallone‘s sense of humor may not be one of his better-known traits, but it’s the key reason “Spy Kids 3-D” director Robert Rodriguez said he cast him.

Stallone compared working with a green screen to “being held face down in a bowl of guacamole for three weeks” (though his part took just five days to shoot).

“Yeah, it’s strange. It’s like working without a net.”

Yet “Spy Kids 3-D” feels like a safe move compared with what Stallone has planned. First up is a ripped-from-the-headlines crime drama called “Thugz Life” (formerly “Rampart Scandal”) that Stallone has written and is preparing to direct in his first stint behind the camera since 1985’s “Rocky IV.” He’ll also star as real-life Los Angeles police detective Russell Poole, whose career crashed as he tried to get to the bottom of the Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls murders.

Then there’s “Puncher’s Chance,” which continues Stallone‘s exploration of counted-out guys who keep forging ahead.

He admits he goofed in giving Rocky brain damage in “Rocky V,” which ended with Rocky brawling with his ungrateful protege on the street rather than in the ring.

“It was a big mistake on my part because nobody wants to see the dark, depressing underbelly of a character they’ve had joy with,” Stallone said.

So Rocky will return to the ring for movie No. 6.

– Craig Zablo

“Rocky 6” Tidbit

Craig / / 2003, Rocky 6, Rumors

Rocky 6

Hey Craig,
I just thought that I’d send you a note about Stallone. Stallone was interviewed on Jim Rome’s Sports Radio Show today (7/23) at 12:30pm and was asked about Rocky 6. He said that the script is finished and that it is called “The Puncher’s Chance”. He mentioned that the story is a lot like George Foreman‘s return to the ring and that Rocky‘s opponent is a like a 6’6″ Allen Iverson. ??? Whoa. Take that for what it’s worth. It’s still up in the air as to whether or not it will get made, but Stallone says that the deal is close. Anyway, I thought Stallone Zoner’s would want to know. Most of the interview was about Spy Kids 3D and nothing was mentioned about Rambo IV.…sadly. :(…..

Sincerely,
Mark Dambach

Thanks to Mark for the tip! – Craig Zablo

Will there be another “Rocky”?

Craig / / 2003, Celebs, Rocky 6, Shade, Spy Kids 3D

In the July 20, 2003 Who’s News section of USA Weekend the following appeared:

Q: Is Sylvester Stallone really working on another “Rocky” movie? Angel Moll, Bellingham, Mass.

Yes. Stallone, 57, now is writing a script that will have sensitive boxer Rocky Balboa jumping into the ring for a sixth time [it’s been a while; “Rocky V” came out in 1990]. Meanwhile, Stallone can be seen as the villain in “Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over” next weekend. The role of the baddie is a switch for the actor, one that’ll no doubt tickle his three daughters with third wife Jennifer Flavin [Sophia, 6, Sistine, 5, and Scarlet, 1]. The Los Angeles-based star, who has two older children from his first marriage, also is waiting to see whether “Shade,” an independent con-man caper he filmed with Melanie Griffith will be released.

– Craig Zablo

Drago to Return?

Craig / / 2003, Celebs, Rocky 6

From Dark Horizons today:

Dolph Lundgren‘s Next: Confucius say – Dolph‘s career fell in woods and no-one around to hear it, did it make sound?  Guess not. The 45 year-old 6’6″ Swede has three projects set for release this year and recently discussed one of those with B & K Sports Magazine – “I’ve done Alien Agent. I play a man who must stop a gateway opening between two galaxies. It’s a science fiction movie of sorts. Sidney Furie is the director, and we have an amazing cast”. Direct to video you say? Maybe, but another project he may be involved in won’t be so misfortunate: “Sly‘s writing a new Rocky. The 6th one, and tells me he’s going to try and write Ivan Drago in it. There’s no way I’d miss out on an opportunity on sparring with Balboa again. In my opinion, Rocky IV, was one of the best Rocky sequels. Not the least – the better of my films. If we can get those two guys back in the ring again, we could have something special. And from what Sly tells me, it’s going to be good. I look forward to doing it”. Thanks to ‘Daeagel’

Thanks to John La Cour who was first with the tip and to the many others who also sent it in!

– Craig Zablo [January 7, 2003]

SLYFECTA

Craig / / 2001, Celebs, Family, Jennifer Flavin-Stallone, Planet Hollywood, Rocky 6, Rocky Musical, TV

The October 26th issue of Entertainment Weekly contains three Sly items!

#1 Sly Schemes Rocky may be down, but don’t count him out: MGM KO’d plans for Rocky 6 – the studio would only commit $10 million to the sequel – but franchise creator and star Sylvester Stallone is shopping other Italian Stallion-inspired projects. He’s pitching the networks a sitcom about a boxing priest: Father Lefty, which Stallone would produce but not star in, features a tough but loving man of the cloth. “It’s about a very eccentric priest who has his thumb on the pulse,” says the 55-year-old actor. “A real character who’s not far from Rocky.” He also thinks Rocky: The Musical could be a Broadway box office champ. “It would be very similar to the movie, but of course with songs,” says Stallone. “I’ll probably write the book.” Would Rocky belt out Survivor‘s “Eye of the Tiger“? “Absolutely Do-do, doo, doo,”Sly sings. “It’s the thrill of the fight.”

#2 Expecting Stop! Or my wife will deliver. Sylvester Stallone, 55, and model spouse Jennifer Flavin, 33, are expecting their third child. (A due date was not announced.) Daughters Sophia and Sistine are 5 and 3, respectively. Stallone also has two sons, Sage, 25, and Seargeoh, 22, from his first marriage.

#3 In the Encore section there is the above pic and an article about the birth of Planet Hollywood ten years ago.

-Craig Zablo
(October 20, 2001)