On February 17th, The Latino Review was the first to announce that Danny Trejo has joined Sly’s cast for “The Expendables.” How cool is that? Trejo always makes a film better — he’ a fan favorite and a welcome addition.
Francavilla’s “Cop Land”
Francesco Francavilla is an extremely talented artist. His art blog is a regular stop on my internet travels. I love Francesco’s moody black and white work and was excited to get a copy of his Chiaroscuro sketchbook. I was even more excited to learn that Francesco draws a free “quick sketch” in every copy ordered through his site. As you can see from the scan above, he decided to give me his take on Freddy from “Cop Land.”
Chiaroscuro is 70 pages full of Francesco’s black and white work. It features everything from quick sketches to more detailed work of characters like Hellboy, Batman, Kong, Marv, and so many others. It arrives securely packaged [which is a major plus knowing my mail carrier] and the last page contains the quick sketch. Francesco has another sketchbook available. Schermoscuro is a classic horror movie guide in artbook form. Francesco is offering the same deal on it and I plan to take him up on it soon.
Sly Candids
On Feburary 9, 2009, X17OnLine posted several candids of Sly. You can check them out by clicking here.
Rocky & Philly
On February 9, 2009, Mercury News.com posted “Let Freedom Ring: See Philadelphia on a Budget.” They ran the photo above with tips on what to see in the city without spending a fortune. Of course, this included places made famous by Sly/Rocky. You can read the whole piece here.
Edinho Maga’s “Rocky Balboa”
Edinho Maga who created the spectacular Rambo statue that was then picked up by Hollywood Collectibles and turned into a limited edition release is back. This time he has created an equally amazing statue of Rocky Balboa.
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Thanks to Edinho Maga for once again sharing his talents with us.
New Stallone Blog
Here’s a blog where a Stallone collector regularly posts new photos of his collection.
Why JCVD is not Expendable
TotalFilm.com has an excerpt from their interview with Jean-Claude Van Damme about why he turned down a role in “The Expendables.” Here’s what he had to say:
“Stallone gave me a part in his next movie,” he told us. “But I ask him about the subject, about the story.”
“He said, ‘You’re gonna make lots of money.’ I don’t want to hear that, I want to hear what was my character. He was unable to tell what it’s going to be.”
“[Stallone said:] ‘You know, uh, well, the fighting will be good.’ [So I said:] ‘Sly, what is my character?’ So I didn’t do the movie.”
I can understand Van Damme wanting to know about his character, but since Sly is writing the piece and would adapt each character to the actor, perhaps Van Damme should have taken a leap of faith and signed on. The full interview with Jean-Claude Van Damme can be found in Total Film magazine.
Rocky’s Best Opponents
William Russo, over at the Bleacher Report, takes a look at “The Best and Worst Opponents of Rocky Balboa.” There’s an online poll and right now Apollo and Clubber are at at 30% with Drago close behind at 28%. Thunderlips [2%], Tommy Gunn [6%], and Mason Dixon [4%] are lagging way behind.
Quick Clip on ET
Entertainment Tonight has a quick clip of Sly doing some quick shopping. He shows up at about the 1:12 mark.
“Rocky” Honored Again
Former Lightweight boxing champ, Sean O’Grady, was interviewed recently by Ring Sports. When asked what is his favorite book or movie about boxing replied:
Sly Stallone did a wonderful job on the Rocky Movies. My favorite one is the first. He was terrific and did a great job presenting the struggles. The first Rocky had so much depth to it. Great!
Who can argue with the champ? You can read the full interview here.