Stallone, MGM to Mount ‘Rocky’ Comeback
Friday December 13 7:08 PM ET
The bell may be ready to ring for round 6 in the long-running series of “Rocky” movies that made Sylvester “Sly” Stallone a household name and Hollywood star.
Film studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. has signed Stallone to write a “Rocky V.” screenplay with an update to the story of the scrappy Philadelphia boxer who rises from a club fighter to champion of the world, gets knocked down, then rises again, an MGM spokeswoman said on Thursday.
Details were sketchy because Stallone, who wrote 1976’s original “Rocky,” has just been hired, but the idea is to avoid the big-budget style of Hollywood sequels and return to the small, independent film feel of the original.
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Early plans have Stallone, 56, portraying the fighter Rocky Balboa, again. But this time, he is running a youth center when he is lured out of retirement for one last fight.
The first “Rocky” was a labor of love for Stallone who, at that time, had only been in bit parts in movies such as 1974’s “Lords of Flatbush.” Not only did he write “Rocky,” he directed it and played Balboa.
“Rocky” was made for just over $1 million and raked in $220 million in worldwide ticket sales. It earned critical acclaim and won the Oscar for best movie.
“Rocky II” followed in 1979, and in the subsequent years MGM, Stallone and producers Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff teamed up for more movies culminating in 1990’s “Rocky V.” All the sequels grossed over $100 million in ticket sales, except for the final one, which took in a disappointing $40 million.
The idea of making “Rocky VI” a low-budget production would keep to MGM’s two-pronged approach of producing sequels of popular titles already in its 4,000-film library and staying away from expensive productions that, if they flop, can hurt the company’s earnings.
It ran into such a budget-busting problem this past summer with “Windtalkers,” a $100 million-plus movie that looked good on paper because it had a big-name star, Nicolas Cage ( news), and director, John Woo ( news), but flopped at box offices.
MGM fared much better with the low-budget September film “Barbershop,” which was made for less than $15 million, but snared roughly $75 million in domestic ticket sales.