The Making of ‘Rocky’ Is Now Its Own Movie

The story of Rocky seems to be over for all intents and purposes. Sylvester Stallone is now 80 years old, and he last played the beloved boxing champ in 2018’s Creed II. Stallone did not return for Creed III, and the hinted spinoff for the aging Rocky out of Creed II has yet to appear. We may have finally seen the last of the Italian Stallion.

Ah, but these Hollywood studios are a crafty bunch. Instead of a new Rocky, why not the old one again? I Play Rocky, directed by Green Book’s (and There’s Something About Mary’s) Peter Farrelly, is a biopic about Stallone in his early years as a struggling actor trying to get his dream project made. It also doubles as a kind of a sneaky remake of 1976’s Rocky itself, since you get to see many of its iconic shots and locations recreated in the film.

See how many you can spot in the I Play Rocky trailer below:

That’s Anthony Ippolito as Stallone and I have to say: He does a hell of a Stallone voice. It’s borderline uncanny. (Ippolito previously played Al Pacino in The Offer, the miniseries about the making of The Godfather. This dude’s got quite a career playing famous actors of the 1970s. Somebody better make a movie about the making of The Deer Hunter so he can do De Niro next.)

Here is I Play Rocky’s official synopsis:

The film is an electrifying true story about an unknown actor with an unshakable belief that he wasn’t just meant to write Rocky—he was meant to be Rocky Balboa. Told “no” at every turn, Sylvester Stallone bets everything on himself, holding the line on playing the lead against seemingly impossible odds. The result is the ultimate underdog story behind the ultimate underdog movie.

I Play Rocky is scheduled to open in theaters on November 6.