Category: TV

Stallone Goes Back to Boxing for TV Show

Craig / / 2004, The Contender, TV

From the Associated Press Sat, Apr 24, 2004

ESSEN, Germany – Sylvester Stallone, the star of the five “Rocky” movies, says he’s hoping to draw people who don’t like boxing to his latest on-screen venture — a reality television show featuring young fighters.

Stallone, 57, is the executive producer of “The Contender,” slated to start next year, finding and grooming would-be boxers.

“All these 16 fighters must have a very good story and an interesting background,” Stallone said Saturday at a fitness fair in Germany. “You’ll get to know their wives and children, their mothers. It’s very emotional.”

“What I really want is for people, especially women, who don’t like boxing, to watch this show because it’s a drama,” he added.

The winner of the NBC series is to get $1 million and the chance to become a professional prize fighter. The boxers will fight one another in a weekly elimination process similar to other reality shows.

Stallone, in Essen to promote his nutritional products company, Instone, said he likely would no longer be tempted by a major movie role that would take him away from his family for months.

“I had my high point 30 years ago,” he said. “I had a very unusual career. It was too good — how do you top that?”

– Craig

Sly’s definitely a ‘Contender’

Craig / / 2004, Celebs, The Contender, TV

From Liz Smith’s March 19, 2004 Newsday.com column:
Sly’s definitely a ‘Contender’

JEALOUSY, ENVY, hurt pride, hurt feelings – sounds like the recipe for a soap opera or a love affair, doesn’t it? But, no, it’s big business. Big movie business.

For years, Sylvester Stallone has been trying to talk his original “Rocky” producer, Irwin Winkler, and the owners of the “Rocky” franchise, MGM, into another film about the indefatigable boxing hero. Sly sat down on more than one occasion and wrote an unpaid-for original screenplay for what would be the sixth round of the Philadelphia- based classic. The last one he titled “Puncher’s Chance,” giving himself a role in it as a boxing veteran.

So, some months ago, I ran into the gifted Winkler at the theater and, during the intermission, put my two cents in that the world will always be ready to welcome another “Rocky” movie, and why didn’t he get moving? (The original won the Oscar back in 1976; its theme music became a classic, and there have already been four sequels, all of them successful. The “Rocky” idea has earned at least $1.5 billion.)

While I didn’t give myself credit for actually pushing Winkler, it began to look as if he and MGM would finally move on the project. Little did I realize that behind the scenes, MGM’s head man Alex Yemenidjian, who had been saying the “Rocky” idea was passe, suddenly decided that MGM would distribute such a movie, only if the money was raised elsewhere to make it. This reluctance and lack of faith seemed a bit odd since “Rocky” is MGM’s second-largest asset after the James Bond movies.

In the meantime, Stallone, who has waited and waited while MGM and Winkler dragged their feet, was convinced by “Survivor” producer Mark Burnett and DreamWorks’ Jeffrey Katzenberg to star in their coming reality TV show about aspiring young boxers. “The Contender” could bow as early as November and will show us youngsters getting to live out their boxing dreams. Stallone will play a kind of Donald Trump figure; he’ll be the one to say “You’re down for the count” or “Count 10; you’re out!” Stallone will not only star, he’ll be executive producer, and he owns this show with Katzenberg and Burnett for NBC.

Since “The Contender” announcement, MGM and Winkler have both been galvanized and have exploded in fury at their old friend Stallone. Yemenidjian is quoted as saying that, as a result of the planned television series, “Now we, MGM, will do the real Rocky!” Stallone, who created his fame and movie career when he wrote and starred in the original against all odds, is reported saying, with some justification in my view – “They are looking for the real Rocky; he’ll be on NBC in ‘The Contender.'”

Thinking on all of this and the unfortunate circumstance of the severing of the Stallone-Winkler friendship, a thought occurs to me. If “The Contender” is a big hit, as everyone expects since it sold for one of the highest prices ever in tube history, doesn’t this make another “Rocky” feature a hotter idea than ever? Just asking! Of course, I can’t imagine a “Rocky” sequel without Stallone in some guise or other. So everybody ought to kiss and make up.

 

NBC in “Contender’s” Corner

Craig / / 2004, The Contender, TV

NBC in ‘Contender’s’ Corner
Wed Feb 25, 7:36 AM ET
By Nellie Andreeva

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – On Sylvester Stallone’s home turf — the no-frills L.A. Boxing Club in a gritty part of downtown Los Angeles where he trains — the actor along with producer Mark Burnett officially announced “The Contender,” a new reality boxing series for NBC.

Sitting in front of a kickboxing ring decorated in white, red and blue, the two, who executive produce the project with DreamWorks’ Jeffrey Katzenberg, fielded questions Tuesday from reporters about the series, which will chronicle the lives of 16 aspiring boxers who vie for the top prize, which will include a monetary component as well as a chance at becoming a professional prizefighter.

“I’m going to be Donald Thump,” Stallone quipped when asked to compare his role on the show to that of Donald Trump on Burnett’s hit reality series “The Apprentice” on NBC.

There is an idea about getting such boxing greats as Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier to appear on the DreamWorks TV/Mark Burnett Prods. show, and they may even spar with Stallone.

“Me actually going in the ring with a few of these people and friends, I think that will be kind of fun,” Stallone said.

The winner will not sign with any of the existing professional boxing organizations. Burnett confirmed that the goal is to launch a new federation that will handle the best contenders on the show.

“Right now, the focus is first of all to take 16 fighters and give them a chance,” Burnett said. “But going forward, yes, the intention is to protect these fighters and give them a chance.”

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter