Ippolito Cast As Young Sylvester Stallone In New Biopic

Anthony Ippolito has been cast as Sylvester Stallone in I Play Rocky. 

The movie will be directed by Peter Farrelly, who co-wrote and directed the Oscar-winning film, Green Book. The script was written by Peter Gamble, and the film will be produced by Toby Emmerich and Christian Baha, with Amazon MGM Studios backing the project. Ippolito previously played Al Pacino in The Offer, a series about the making of Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather (1972).

The film will tell Stallone’s journey to write and star in the 1976 classic, Rocky, a story that follows an underdog boxer, Rocky Balboa, who gets a chance to fight the champion, Apollo Creed. Despite the success of the franchise, Stallone does not own the rights.

“I was very angry. I was furious. Rocky is on TV worldwide more than any other Oscar-winning film other than The Godfather. “You have six of them. Now you have Creed and Creed II. My kids and their kids are taken care of because of the system. But some dark little segues and people have put it to you. When I finally confronted them (in 1985, before Rocky IV), I said, ‘Does it bother you guys that I’ve written every word, I’ve choreographed it, I’ve been loyal to you, I’ve promoted it, directed it, and I don’t have 1% that I could leave for my children?’ And the quote was, ‘You got paid.’ And that was the end of the conversation,” Stallone said 

The project could face several challenges. Although the story of Rocky’s creation is famous, it’s also a story that has been told many times, including in documentaries and interviews with Stallone himself. While Farrelly won an Oscar for the dramatic film Green Book, he is more widely known for his work in comedy (Dumb and Dumber, There’s Something About Mary). Fans had plenty to say about the project.