Category: Rocky

STALLONEZONE EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH SHANNON

Craig / / 2003, Celebs, Rocky, Rocky 2, Rocky 3, Rocky 4, Rocky 5, Sly Fan, StalloneZone

Sometimes one word says it all. Stallone. Arnold. Madonna. Shannon.

Shannon? Yep, Shannon is all that need be said to identify another major talent.

I first became aware of Shannon‘s art when I picked up the 20th Anniversary stamp set for the “Rocky” movies. I was impressed by the five stamp series. I would later learn that Sly was also impressed. He even owns a couple of Shannon‘s originals. Sly again worked with Shannon when she was chosen to do the International “Driven” poster.

Shannon has created other successful celebrity stamps including those for James Dean, Elvis, Muhammad Ali, Princess Diana to name just a few.   Shannon was crowned the “Greatest Beatle Artist in the World” and with that the job of creating over 120 murals for the “Hard Days Nights” Hotel. You can check out Shannon‘s art at her website, but you may want to check out StalloneZone‘s exclusive interview first!

STALLONEZONE EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH SHANNON

Craig: Could you tell us a bit about yourself, how you got your start as an artist and your artistic influences?

Shannon: I have been drawing since the age of 2 (As mom told it). My start took place when I discovered what a pencil was and what it did. Seemed to come as natural as getting up in the morning for me. In the past 10 years, I have taken my craft and worked it to perfection. I acknowledge my talent as a gift and respect it for what it is. To this day, it still baffles my mind as to what I have accomplished.

Unlike my peers, who are influenced by other painters, my influences come from my childhood heroes, such as John Lennon and The Beatles, Elvis Presley, Sylvester Stallone, Billy Holiday, Muhammad Ali, and Charlie Chaplin. I do greatly respect Norman Rockwell. These are people that beat most of the odds thrown into their path.

Craig: How did you get and prepare for the “Rocky” 20th Anniversary stamp set?

Shannon: I’d just finished the European version, and answer to the US Postage Stamp featuring James Dean, I had created 9 Dean stamps for the project. Although it was my first postage stamp series, it was very successful and earned me some serious clout and leeway on future projects.

So, fortunately I was asked the big question, “What would you like to do on your next project, Shannon? Any ideas?”  The first person to jump into my mind was Sylvester Stallone. He was impactful, handsome, sexual, popular, and I had a small Stallone connection. Having been more a fan of Rambo than Rocky, I clearly had no idea where this would go…if indeed it did go.

So, I called my connection and asked they get in touch with Mr. Stallone (who already knew the quality of my work) and see if he was interested. I was told to wait a couple weeks for the answer.

I put the phone down and went into “anticipation mode”. Within 5 minutes I started to think myself into a nervous frenzy, then the phone rang. I picked it up and the voice said, “OK, he’ll do it. Not of Sylvester, the man…but as Rocky, the character.”

I couldn’t believe it happened so quickly. I was told Sly needed this project to coincide with the 20th Anniversary of Rocky, the movie. Good news: I got the project!

Bad news: I had only six weeks to bang out 5 Rocky illustrations for 5 Stamps. One for each movie.  The anniversary was that near.

Craig: Did you work closely with Sly during the project’s conception and preparatory phases? Did you show Sylvester sketches as the project developed?

Shannon: I was sent a various array of slides and photos of the “Rocky” movies. Honestly, they were all useless. So I jumped in my shiny red Corvette and missioned my way to book stores, libraries, and memorabilia shops. I had no choice, the project had to make it’s deadline.

Lucky for me, the “Rocky” Anniversary 5 pack had just hit the stores. I found what I needed and went to work. First thing to do: Watch every “Rocky” movie, in order, back to back…as if it was one movie.

Sly saw all paintings as they were finished, via Fed Ex. I hadn’t met the man yet, but during a phone conversation with his PR personnel, I heard his voice in the background, explaining only one change he would like taken care of. It was pretty cool.

Craig: Of all the possibilities, what made you decide on one particular image for something as iconic as a Rocky Balboa stamp? Did the man himself have some say in that decision?

Shannon: I tried to look at it this way: I have to create one finished illustration to represent one major movie. Five times! The impact had to be there. And I had but one shot to do it. Again, timing was everything. As the deadline drew nearer, I watched the movies over and over. Then listened to them while I painted. Their influence was phenomenal.

Sly had no real decisions, except for the one, in the project. I believe it was because of the impact of the Anniversary and a full schedule that needed all of his attention. I would also like to believe he trusted my work. I found, in the future, that was the key element…he trusted me.

Craig: Were you nervous when the time came to reveal the finished work to “Rocky”?

Shannon: Not really. I knew they were all good. Plus, it was a major turning point in the evolution of my work. My passion for this job seemed to trigger a whole new me and I was 80% content with the work I was creating. And that is a lot of percentage for me. I am my toughest critic.

Nervousness came the day Sly and I unveiled the “Rocky” stamps at Planet Hollywood in New York City. Keep in mind, I still had not met him. But to someone’s craziness, it was decided it would be magical if we met on TV. I, myself, could think of a better word other then magical. I remember sitting in my seat waiting to be called up. I watched Sly unveil each of my creations one by one. It seemed as if it would take forever and I could swear my heart was jumping out of my chest and hitting the back of the person’s head sitting in front of me. When I was finally called and was walking up to finally meet “the man”, a warm sensation went from my head to my toes and suddenly…I was fine. No nervousness, no shakes and no heart coming out of my chest. I was even able to be a bit “camp” with Sly in front of the cameras. It was a great ending to a grueling 6 weeks.

Craig: What are your thoughts on creating another Balboa stamp, to compliment the possible theatrical release of Rocky‘s 6th and most likely final chapter ?

Shannon: I would love it! I heard, through the Hollywood grapevine, it will indeed be a Broadway play. But a 6th stamp gives it a nice round number. I am ready for the challenge if it does arrive.

Craig: You also painted the poster used for the “Driven” international release and for the Rocky animated “doll” box. How did those come about?

Shannon: I heard Sly was doing this fast paced, on the edge, racing picture. Being involved with racing myself (I raced Motocross for about 5 years in my youth and my Dad built racing cars in his prime), I found this very appetizing. I still have a beautiful 57 Chevy hard top that I built from the ground up. Nitrous, 400 small block with a destroked 350 crank, fuelly heads, high compression pistons, racing cam, etc. Ummm, you get the picture. It’s in the blood, you know?

So I wanted “on” this project in the worst way. Well, I pushed and pushed until I finally got word to Sly that I wanted a shot at the movie poster. As usual, he received word near the end of the project. Sly contacted me and we talked quite a bit. He asked me up to his place and we discussed the possibility of a European poster. It was too late for the U.S. illustration. Sly sent me over to Warner Brothers in Los Angeles, where I live today, to go through the Driven library of photos. Again, as before, most of the photos were already taken and I got the last of the batch. Some were good, but the car shots were bad.

I was “off” to the libraries and book stores once again. Sly was quite involved with this project and I found myself up at his beautiful home countless times. Sly gave me some great, needed photos he had at his home. His wife and family are wonderful people and treated me and my talents with great respect. I was asked for Thanksgiving dinner, at Sly‘s home, a few months later. Word had gotten back to the Stallones I was going to be alone for the holidays. This shows you what wonderful people they really are.

As for as the Rocky Doll art…It is actually the number 5 Stamp on the box. That simple.

Craig: Are there any other Sly Stallone projects that we haven’t mentioned?

Shannon: At present time, I am working on three coffee table books that represent different aspects of my work. They involve one on The Beatles, another on KISS, and the third is a book on my celebrity art which will involve Sylvester more than any other celeb. I will use Sly for the cover and when the time is right, ask him to write the forward.

Craig: What kind of “personal art” do you do for yourself?

Shannon: My personal work has a lot to do with the people I am influenced by.  Being donned “The World’s Greatest Beatles Artist” (in England) has given opportunity for a very nice catalog of Beatles art….which will be in my book. Also, portraits have been painted of Bette Davis, Steven Spielberg and ET, Van Halen, Tom Cruise, Elvis, and Charlie Chaplin, to name just a few. Most recently, I have been involved with painting female erotica….Vargas style. Truly painted much like the old masters, but with today’s twist.

Craig: Where can fans find your work?

Shannon: You can see the wide variety of my work at TheShannonGallery.com. There’s also a listing of tour dates for the future, which are quite helpful.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has my 10 foot tall Fender Stratocaster Guitar, I created, on display for the next year.

I will also be creating 120 giant murals, which will be part of the structure of The Hard Days Night Hotel, in Liverpool, England. This hotel is the world’s first Beatles themed establishment. One mural for each room. Quite the project!

Craig: Wow! You have quite a few projects lined up. We’ll keep an eye out for them. Thanks for taking the time to talk with us!

Wepner vs Stallone

Craig / / 2003, Celebs, Rocky

Chuck Wepner, the fighter who helped inspired Sylvester Stallone‘s “Rocky” movies, plans to sue Sylvester Stallone because Sly has used his name over the years to promote the Rocky series. Sly has said that the Wepner – Ali title fight provided a spark of inspiration for the creation of Rocky.

Wepner is quoted as saying, “I have never gotten one penny from these movies which have made over $1 billion”… “The last straw was when he [Sly] was in Weehawken filming ‘Copland’ a few years ago and told me that he might have a part for me. I went up there, but nothing ever came of it.”

So 27 years after the release of “Rocky,” Chuck has decided to sue. And the last straw happened 7 years ago when Sly said he MIGHT have a part for Chuck.

I wonder, over the years, how many times Chuck has told people he was the inspiration for Rocky. I wonder how many autographs and speaking engagements were prompted because people knew of Chuck‘s connection to Rocky.

This is a pretty sad story.

– Craig Zablo

The Rock Picks “Rocky”

Craig / / 2003, Celebs, Honors, Rocky

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was recently asked by the Associated Press to name his favorite movies in several different genres. Here are The Rock’s answers as well as his comments on one of the films.

Buddy Film: “48 Hrs.,”

Western: “Unforgiven,”

Martial Arts: “Enter the Dragon,”

Adventure: “Raiders of the Lost Ark,”

Boxing: “Rocky,” The Rock said. “I love the story of a guy who fights the odds, and he doesn’t have to win — and he doesn’t win.”

Sci-Fi: “Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back,”

Scariest Action: “Predator,”

Funniest Action: “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,”

I like The Rock as a wrestler and actor — and he obviously has great taste in movies as well! – Craig (Sept. 24, 2003)

“Rocky” Scores Again

Craig / / 2003, Honors, Rocky

 

From Sports Illustrated Volume 99, NO. 4, August 04, 2003
Illustration by: Richie Fahey

The top 50 Sports movies of all time were covered in the Sports Illustrated issue listed above. Here are the top ten, the comments for “Rocky” and the illustration that accompanied the article.

1: Bull Durham

2: Rocky

“In America‘s bicentennial year Rocky Balboa became the first of the post-Vietnam War heroes, a frenzied expression of old-fashioned individualism. A slow-on-the-uptake palooka who gets a chance to survive a fight with the heavyweight champ (Apollo Creed, played with panache by Weathers), Balboa has a Philadelphia story with heart and purity and just enough cruelty for resonance. Stallone informed his loser with a colossal goofiness that was impossible not to watch. He was so convincingly sincere that audiences actually jumped up and screamed for him to win.

3: Raging Bull
4: Hoop Dreams
5: Slap Shot
6: Hoosiers
7: Olympia
8: Breaking Away
9: Chariots of Fire
10: When We Were Kings


Thanks to Big John Beatty!- Craig Zablo

“Rocky” and the “Boxing Renaissance of the Eighties”

Craig / / 2003, Honors, Rocky

On July 26, 2006, Michael Katz posted an article at thesweetscience.com titled “Yo, Adrian, Let’s Hail the Spirit of ’76” which explores the factors that led to a boxing “Renaissance of the Eighties.” The great fighters that came out of the 1976 Olympics played a major role, but Katz also credits “Rocky.” Here’s what he had to say:

There was another major factor in producing the Eighties’ ring revival. “The ‘Rocky’ movie,” said [Boxing Promoter Bob] Arum.Sylvester Stallone’s film, based on so many real boxing nuggets – Rocky Balboa, like Joe Frazier, hitting the sides of beef; the instruction to the corner to “cut me,” when he couldn’t see out of a swollen eye – captured the public imagination. It was more real than the reality series, “The Contender,” which Stallone would attempt many years later.“In the movie,” said Arum, “he had more control – he was the writer and the director.”The Spirit of ’76 remains with us. There’s another “Rocky” movie due this year, but more apropos, if one forgets about the heavyweights, the talent level is extraordinarily high in the real thing.

Thirty years later and “Rocky” is still getting props. And rightly so. For the full report, click HERE. – Craig

“Rocky” Still a Great Example

Craig / / 2003, Honors, Rocky

Michael Booth of The Denver Post in his July 27, 2006 column explores the fact that “not all box-office hits had great expectations.” Booth lists eight movies that defied all expectations and “Rocky” makes the cut. Here’s what he says:

“Rocky” cost less than $1 million, was the brainchild of then-nobody Sylvester Stallone and sported an underdog plot considered naive for a troubled year like 1976. It made $117 million and won the best-picture Oscar.Thirty years later and “Rocky” is still getting props. And rightly so.

For the full report, click HERE. – Craig

“Rocky” Top 50 Best Endings

Craig / / 2003, Honors, Rocky

Filmritic.com has compiled “The Top 50 Movie Endings of All Time” and of course “Rocky” made the list coming in at #37. Here’s what they had to say:

37. Rocky (1976) – As Bill Conte‘s score soars in the background, a bloodied Rocky (Sylvester Stallone) and a hatless Adrian (Talia Shire) finally proclaim their love for one another. And in the distant background, a ring announcer tells a frenzied crowd that our hero has actually lost the fight that held us captive for an entire final act. In one dramatic move, two shy nobodies find their hearts and nothing else matters. -NS

For the full report, click HERE. – Craig

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’s Sixth Round

Craig / / 2003, Celebs, Family, Jennifer Flavin-Stallone, Rocky, Spy Kids 3D, Unmade Films

“Rocky’s Sixth Round”
by Liz Smith for New York Newsday.com
July 28, 2003′

What nature requires is obtainable, and within easy reach. It’s for the superfluous we sweat,” said Roman playwright Seneca.

SYLVESTER STALLONE, sitting in dark pants and a gray polo shirt in the lobby lounge of the Four Seasons hotel, looks as if he never breaks a sweat. But judging from his beautifully tanned biceps and deltoids and his flat abs – I’m sure he does. He still works out and takes care of himself. I have known this guy since he hit the heights with “Rocky,” his creation, his inspiration, his super-hit. Stallone looks better today at 57 than he did back in the beginning of what many thought was just an impossible dream.

Sly is in town promoting his role as a villain in “Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over.” I asked how much of a villain? He laughed, “I’m the one you want to live next door. I’m the kind who keeps learning his lesson, like Wile E. Coyote. I’m an evil genius who creates a kind of cyberspace game that steals the minds of children. We’re like we’re in a computer game. And the kids are just great; real pros! I loved working with them.”

I ASKED my longtime friend Sly to talk a bit about what it’s like to have created the iconic “Rocky,” and how he has adjusted to the ups and downs of fame. He said, “Well, I have a great family life, a wonderful wife [Jennifer Flavin] who gets smarter every day, and my three daughters, 2, 5 and 6. You know, the Quran says a man with three little girls goes directly to heaven when he dies, as he will already have endured in life enough worry and paranoia. But it has dawned on me that your life works from your roots. My family has saved my sanity.

“It took me a while to realize that ‘Rocky’ wasn’t just a performance. It had great meaning; the character became indelible. I don’t want to sound pretentious, but I did once rebel against the ‘Rocky’ idea. Now I know it’s normal to want to run the full spectrum, the rainbow of all your colors. ‘Rocky’ is a philosophy, so let’s make the sixth one, which I’ve already written. ‘Rocky’ still needs to be in the game, like my hero, George Foreman, who went from real-life ‘villain’ to fabled hero in only 50 years or so. He’ll be in the next ‘Rocky’ movie!

“I call this script ‘Puncher’s Chance,’ because it’s what every fighter has. A fighter may lose his abilities, but even old fighters retain their punch. It’s the last thing they lose. And if they use it right, they can get lucky. Foreman, you know, is going to fight again professionally. And look at a great athlete like Lance Armstrong. These guys just keep moving forward.”

MEANWHILE, Stallone is moving forward with another story he wrote, “Thug’z Life,” about the real-life deaths of rappers Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G., and the corruption in the L.A. Police Department. Sly will direct, produce and appear as Det. Russell Poole, who believed there was something rotten going on and was removed from the force as a result. “We are just waiting for the Errors & Omissions insurance; it’s a normal thing, to keep us from being sued,” Sly said. “I think this can be a great film. It will offer a conspiracy theory, present the evidence and let the audience draw its own conclusions.”

“YOU KNOW, sometimes, I think there’s not a lot I can do in this industry,” Sly continued. “I have begun fantasizing about getting into the anti-aging game with nutritionals. I have been talking to experts, and I’d like to do something like what Paul Newman did with his food line. A situation where you can do something useful for society and give something back. So I have been examining that.

“Stallone is a forceful guy, who also has high hopes that, eventually, he will make his movie on the life of Edgar Allan Poe. It is written, it is ready, and Sly continues to seek the actor to play it and the financing to make it. “It will win an Oscar for somebody!” he says with certainty.

At the end of our talk, I asked Sly how his controversial mom, Jackie, is doing? He smiled. “Everybody wants to keep on keeping on, to be famous, to do their thing. She does hers!” Well, she did one thing very well; she produced the phenomenon that is Sylvester Stallone. Sly knows the reality and says “Youth must be served … but the rest of us go on as well. We have our choices, our ambitions, and we have that last important thing – the ‘Puncher’s Chance!'”

Copyright © 2003, Newsday, Inc.

– Craig Zablo