Earlier this month, Sylvester Stallone had lashed out in his emotionally charged Instagram posts at Rocky series producer Irwin Winkler about not being given ownership rights for the highly lucrative ‘Rocky’ franchise. Apparently, Stallone wants an annuity of sorts from the Rocky franchise. And now, the on-screen Italian Stallion has again harshly criticized and expressed his anguish and this time it’s regarding the recently announced Rocky spin-off film ‘Drago’.
In his latest post, Sylvester Stallone has taken a dig at the Rocky producer Irwin Winkler (without taking his name) and his children that how they are using a character (Drago) which he created for the Rocky franchise for a new spin-off movie and that too without even informing him about the same.
The bone of contention for Stallone’s latest emotional outburst is the potential movie based on the character of Ivan Drago, a ruthless Soviet boxer who ended the life of Rocky’s friend Apollo Creed. The character was introduced in the fourth ‘Rocky’ movie ‘Rocky IV’ and Drago’s role was essayed by Swedish actor Dolph Lundgren. The film and Drago’s character were famously written by Sylvester Stallone himself. So, it seems that even if not perhaps legally, then at least morally, Stallone should have been an integral part of the upcoming ‘Drago’ movie. That’s why the outburst.
In the same social media post, Stallone had also called out to Dolph Lundgren by saying that “By the way, I once had nothing but respect for Dolph but he NEVER told me about what was going on behind my back with the character I created for him.”
Later, Dolph Lundgren had clarified regarding the possible Drago spin-off that “There’s no approved script, no deals in place, no director and I was personally under the impression that my friend Sly Stallone was involved as a producer or even as an actor.”
That must have broken the ice between Sylvester Stallone and Dolph Lundgren, who also stars as one of the main actors in Stallone’s popular film series ‘The Expendables’, whose fourth instalment ‘Expend4bles’ is set to release later this year.
For the sake of context, after Stallone wrote Rocky’s screenplay in just about three days, he approached several producers, who repeatedly rejected the script because Stallone himself wanted to play the lead role in the film. Finally, Winkler-Chartoff productions agreed for Stallone to star in the film written by him. Although Rocky went through a complex production rigmarole and the ups and downs, the film is still regarded as Sylvester Stallone’s brainchild and his vision.
Now, let’s hope that the dispute between Sylvester Stallone and Rocky producers gets resolved soon and that it does not affect the upcoming production of the Drago spin-off movie in any way. Because if the matter takes a more concrete shape legally, then Dargo potential spinoff film’s fate might be under the risk of being in jeopardy.
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