Amazon MGM Studios‘ I Play Rocky will enter the ring just in time for the 50th Anniversary of Sylvester Stallone‘s iconic boxing film.
Directed by Peter Farrelly, the high-profile movie about the making of Rocky will open nationwide in theaters Nov. 20 following a limited release on Nov. 13. The original Rocky was released Nov. 21, 1976.
Anthony Ippolito stars as a young Sylvester Stallone in the drama, which tells the true Hollywood story about an unknown actor with an unshakable belief that he wasn’t just meant to write Rocky — he was meant to be Rocky Balboa. Told “no” at every turn, Stallone bets everything on himself, holding the line on playing the lead against seemingly impossible odds. The result is the ultimate underdog story behind the ultimate underdog movie. (Read THR‘s original review of the 1976 feature here.)
Farrelly, who won an Oscar for directing Green Book, is directing I Play Rocky from a script written by Peter Gamble. The cast also includes Matt Dillon, AnnaSophia Robb, P.J. Byrne, Toby Kebbell, Tracy Letts, Jay Duplass, Stephan James, Kiki Seto, Robert Morgan, Saul Stein, Trevor St. John, Erik Palladino and Rob Demery.
I Play Rocky marks Ippolito’s second turn portraying an Italian-American actor and Hollywood legend after playing Al Pacino in the Paramount limited series The Offer.
Toby Emmerich, Christian Baha and Farrelly are producing the feature, with FilmNation Entertainment handling production services and international sales.
Rocky launched a marquee franchise for MGM that was reinvigorated in more recent times with the Creed pics (most thought the series was done for good following the sixth installment, 2006’s Rocky Balboa). Creed, starring Michael B. Jordan and Stallone, marked director Ryan Coogler‘s first time directing a major studio title after Fruitvale Station, an indie film made on a shoestring budget, put him on the map.
Fruitvale Station also launched Jordan’s career. He went on to star in Coogler’s Black Panther and Sinners, the latter of which made history earlier this month when earning 16 Oscar nominations, the most a single film has ever garnered.
