Fans of the Rocky franchise are still waiting for the long-delayed third installment in the Creed series of sequels, and now another spinoff is also in the works. MGM recently announced that Dolph Lundgren and Florian Monteanu will be reprising their roles as antagonistic father-and-son fighters Ivan and Viktor Drago in a new movie which will follow their journey as antiheroes. But while this might be good news to fans, one person in particular isn’t happy: Rocky Balboa himself, Sylvester Stallone.
“Another Heartbreaker,” the actor wrote in an Instagram post which has since been deleted, revealing that the announcement of the spinoff was made without his knowledge, saying: “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.”
“I APOLOGIZE to the FANS,” he continued. “I never wanted ROCKY characters to be exploited by these parasites.”
Stallone’s frustrations are understandable. The entire franchise is a product of his own creativity; he wrote the screenplay for the original Rocky in 1975 as well as its subsequent sequels, which he also directed. However, legally speaking, he no longer owns the rights to any of the characters in those films
“I have zero ownership of Rocky,” he said in a 2019 interview. “Every word, every syllable, every grammatical error was all my fault. It was shocking that it never came to be, but I was told, ‘Hey, you got paid, so what are you complaining about?’ I was furious.”
Stallone sold the rights to Rocky to Winkler in 1976 for $350,000, out of what the actor described as financial desperation (he reportedly had just $100 to his name). The film would eventually go on to win the Oscar for Best Picture and make Stallone a household name—but despite continuing to be heavily involved in the following films in the franchise, he did not see the financial returns that he would have had he retained the rights to the characters.
“I think there was a certain code of business conduct, maybe not as much now, but back then, you don’t want to ruffle the feathers of the golden goose,” Stallone said. “When I finally confronted them [just before Rocky IV in 1985], 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.”
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