Sylvester Stallone and Dolph Lundgren in 2010 Photo: Kiyoshi Ota (Getty Images)
Sylvester Stallone spent the first two years of the pandemic crafting a new, much more serious version of Rocky IV, but has since been vocal about his frustration with Rocky series producer Irwin Winkler, who has continued to control the rights of the Creed movies and their spinoffs, completely shutting out Stallone (beyond the money he’s already made for working on the movies). Earlier this month, Stallone posted a (since-deleted) call on Instagram for Irwin to give him “at least a little bit” of “what’s left” of the Rocky rights so he can “leave something of Rocky” to his children .
Now, the Rocky franchise will continue without Stallone, in both a third Creed film and a recently unveiled Drago spin-off focusing on Dolph Lundgren’s Ivan Drago and his son, Florian Munteanu’s Viktor Drago from Creed 2. Neither project will involve Stallone. , which obviously means he’s not making them money, and it’s no wonder he’s pissed off about it: “A NOVELTY JOB, THE PATHETIC 94-YEAR-OLD PRODUCER AND HIS SELFISH USELESS CHILDREN are picking the what’s left of the bones of another wonderful character!! !” Stallone posted on Instagram (via The Hollywood Reporter ), referring to the 91-year-old Winkler and her allegedly selfish and useless children.
Stallone implies that he would never let them make a Drago spin-off if he was in charge, adding that he’s sorry for “the FANS” and that he “never wanted ROCKY to be exploited FOR THIS GREED.” He also included “#shameless #sadday #Parasite.” (For the record, this same Stallone who never wanted to see Rocky blown up has appeared in six Rocky movies and two Creed movies, which is more than the number of Star Wars movies he’s been in physically appeared Yoda.)
As for why Stallone doesn’t have Rocky, it must be one of those old Hollywood deals where the writers and creators screw up while the producers keep the rights (just ask any Marvel Comics writer), as he certainly created the character. of Rocky Balboa for the first Rocky film.