I Play Rocky: Anthony Ippolito Takes On Sylvester Stallone's Story
Anthony Ippolito plays Sylvester Stallone in I Play Rocky, a film about how the 1976 boxing drama Rocky got made. The movie is due in cinemas on Friday, 6 November, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Ippolito is no stranger to playing a famous Italian-American film figure. He played the young Al Pacino in the 2022 Paramount+ miniseries The Offer, which followed the making of The Godfather. This time the job is harder in one sense. Stallone is still alive, and the film asks the audience to watch a struggling actor fight for a part he wrote himself.
The story goes back to the mid-1970s, when Stallone was a little-known actor who had written a script about an underdog boxer. Studios wanted a bigger name for the lead, and Stallone refused to hand over the screenplay without a role for himself. The film follows that gamble, from the scramble for money to the shoot itself. For a casual viewer, the key point is simple: the boxing movie that became a huge hit almost did not happen with its writer in the ring.
Peter Farrelly directed the film, and Peter Gamble wrote the screenplay. The cast around Ippolito includes AnnaSophia Robb as Stallone's wife, Sasha, and Kiki Seto as Talia Shire. PJ Byrne and Toby Kebbell play the producers Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff, while Stephan James takes on Carl Weathers, the actor who would later play Apollo Creed.
The Guardian's review published on 5 November describes Ippolito as an eerie likeness of the young Stallone. Variety's review from 12 September gave the film's running time as 127 minutes and its rating as PG-13, meaning parents are advised that some material may be unsuitable for children under 13. The film is an Amazon MGM Studios release.
Reviews have been warm rather than glowing. The Hollywood Reporter called it a big-hearted movie about moviemaking, though not an artful one. That is a useful way to think about it. Fans of Rocky will enjoy seeing the famous scenes and the people behind them. Viewers who have never seen the original may still find a clear story about a risk that paid off.
For anyone who has watched Stallone's character climb those steps in Philadelphia, the appeal is obvious. This film turns the spotlight to the writer's struggle rather than the fighter's. Whether that feels like the right trade will depend on the viewer, but it is a different kind of sports story, and it is one that opens on a Friday.
