Despite Ownership Rights Dispute, Sylvester Stallone Still Working on Rocky & Creed Prequels

It took only three days for Sylvester Stallone to complete the screenplay of the Rocky movie. Further, till producers Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff agreed, he refused to part with the rights if he didn’t receive Rocky Balboa’s role. Released in 1976, the movie was a critical and commercial success. Nominated for ten Academy Awards, it bagged the Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Film Editing awards that year.

The movie’s success led to four more sequels by the same name. The franchise’s last film, released in 2006 was Rocky Balboa. Based on Stallone’s original character, a parallel franchise, Creed, was launched in 2015.

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A few years ago, Sly had expressed an interest in making another sequel and a prequel to the cult Rocky movie. Reportedly, there were talks to commence the prequel via television series, showcasing a young Rocky Balboa about to foray into boxing.

I made the Italian Stallion

But Stallone opened a can of worms when he revealed his complex relations with the production team over ownership rights. He told the entertainment magazine Variety, “I have zero ownership of ‘Rocky’ “Every word, every syllable, every grammatical error was all my fault.” “It was shocking that it never came to be, but I was told, ‘Hey, you got paid, so what are you complaining about?’ I was furious.”

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Both the Rocky and Creed franchise earned Sylvester Stallone millions of dollars. Apart from the first Rocky movie’s net income($225 million worldwide), on initial sequels, Stallone received the ‘first-dollar gross,’ which in plain English means a percentage of the movie’s overall box-office income. But Sly’s grouse emanates from the lack of ownership over the series. It would have provided him an income he could have bequeathed to his children after his time.

Now, for the production company, the story runs differently. According to an anonymous source, “He made money from every angle, and still does, so I don’t know what he’s complaining about.”

During an interview with radio service provider Sirius XM, Stallone threw some light on the prequel when host Jessica Shaw asked, “What’s happening with the the prequels to both aren’t there prequel series that you’re working on with both Rocky and Rambo?”

Stallone replied, “Yeah the Rambo one seems to be coming to the surface…I mean the Rocky one I wrote like a good hundred pages on it. I think it’s natural the hardest part is who’s Rocky right finding that guy it’s not easy uh.”

Later he explained how he placed the different characters in the plot.

A story in boxing: From ring to reel

Unhappy with the type of roles he received after returning to New York, Sylvester Stallone took notice of the Muhammad Ali and Chuck Wepner fight in Cleveland. Rocky was the story of an unknown underdog taking on the Heavyweight champion of the world, his struggle, and how it affected those around him.

Conversely, the fight on 24th March 1975 was nothing short of a drama. Called Give the White Guy a Break, Chuck employed rough and unsportsmanlike methods to trip Ali during the ninth round. Unfortunately, the referee Tony Perez preferred to consider it a legal knockdown. Seething with anger, Ali smacked Wepner to win the fight via technical knockout.

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Purportedly Stallone based the character of Rocky Balboa on Wepner on account of his efforts to win. And that of Apollo Creed on Ali.