Yo Adrian (and also people not called Adrian) — we did it! We got an update on Green Book director Peter Farrelly's I Play Rocky, that movie Amazon's making about the turbulent true story of a young Sylvester Stallone's fight for the right to write — and indeed be — Rocky Balboa in John G. Avildsen's legendary boxing drama Rocky. The folks at Amazon MGM Studios took to Instagram earlier today to share our first official look at The Offer star Anthony Ippolito in his grey sweats and beanie as Sly himself. Check it out below;
Well we don't know about you, but Ippolito's a dead ringer for the Italian Stallion to us — and that's a pretty damn Butkus worthy Bull Mastiff too, if ever we've seen one. And if that grainy and train-y shot of Ippolito's Sly in action isn't enough to have you chomping at the bit to see the underdog story behind one of cinema's greatest underdog stories brought to the big screen, then please be reminded of the banging ensemble Dumb & Dumber director Farrelly has brought together for this one. There's Stephan James as Apollo Creed actor Carl Weathers, AnnaSophia Robb as Stallone's then-wife Sasha Czack, Matt Dillon as Sly's dad Frank Stallone Sr., P.J. Byrne as legendary producer Irwin Winkler, Toby Kebbell as co-producer Robert Chartoff, Jay Duplass as director Avildsen, and Tracy Letts as a composite of several of the time's Hollywood big-wigs.
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Written in under three days by a then-broke Stallone and made for under $1 million after Sly turned multiple studios down to ensure nobody would stop him from being the man to play Balboa, Rocky not only went on to become a commercial juggernaut, landing as the highest grossing film of 1976, but it also went on to win Best Picture at the Oscars the following year. It's one of those success stories that's so mad it could only be true — so here's hoping that Farrelly, writer Peter Gamble, and their stacked cast will deliver a knockout whenever I Play Rocky eventually hits cinemas.