We may well have seen the final appearance of beloved fictional ring warrior Rocky Balboa, but his famed adversaries are set to pop up on the silver screen again in the future. Or one of them is, and Sylvester Stallone is not happy about it. At all. Various news outlets are reporting on Sly’s recent written remarks on social media, in which the movie legend has slammed producer Irwin Winkler (along with his two sons) and former co-star Dolph Lundgren for the movie spin-off they are currently working on.
The film, which will tell the story of the pre ‘Rocky IV’ Ivan Drago, will have zero input from Stallone, and the actor/writer was moved to criticise the “back-stabbing” behaviour from Lundgren, who Sly of course made famous in the first place. Stallone really laid into Winkler, who of course produced ‘Rocky,’ along with Robert Chartoff – calling him “pathetic,” and describing his two sons as “moronic vulture children.”
“Another heartbreaker….. just found this out……Once again, Irwin Winkler, this pathetic 94 year old producer and his moronic vulture children, Charles and David, are once again picking clean the bones of another wonderful character I created without even telling me,” Stallone wrote. “I apologize to the fans, I never wanted Rocky characters to be exploited by these parasites. By the way, I once had nothing but respect for Dolph (Lundgren) but he never told me what was going on behind my back with the character I created for him!!! Real friends are more precious than gold.”
Ouch.
Stallone, I think you will agree, is more than entitled to be angry, as well as disappointed. You would have thought that, out of respect and nothing more, either Winkler or Lundgren would have reached out to Stallone to at least ask him his thoughts on (yet) another film based on the ‘Rocky’ characters.
And as for us fans, is there really anything we can get from (yet) another planned instalment in this, by far the most successful boxing movie franchise in history? ‘Rocky’ was great, as were at least two of its sequels. ‘Creed’ and’ Creed II’ were pretty good (‘Creed III’ is on the way, with Stallone on board as producer, but not set to appear in the film), but is there any further mileage in the Drago story?
Stallone clearly thinks there is not.