Sylvester Stallone has expressed regret at not being in Creed III and says that the latest film has been taken in a direction that he wouldn’t have gone in. Here's the trailer for the next film to make your own mind up:
The new film is not only the first film directed by Michael B. Jordan, but also the first movie in the whole franchise that doesn’t star Sly Stallone.
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He started out the whole thing as Rocky Balboa back in 1976, continuing right up until the last Creed film. But, for this one he won’t be in anyone’s corner, which he thinks isn’t great.
Speaking to the Hollywood Reporter, Sly said: "That's a regretful situation [not being in the film] because I know what it could have been,
"It was taken in a direction that is quite different than I would've taken it."
Stallone created the character of boxer Rocky Balboa and wrote the screenplay for the first film, which was nominated for a Best Picture Academy Award.
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Then, after a number of successful films, the franchise was brought back by Ryan Coogler in 2015 for two films, before he passed the directorial reins to Jordan.
Stallone continued: "It's a different philosophy — [producer] Irwin Winkler's and Michael B. Jordan's,
"I wish them well, but I'm much more of a sentimentalist. I like my heroes getting beat up, but I just don't want them going into that dark space. I just feel people have enough darkness."
Stallone also revealed that he hasn’t got any rights to the character and never has, despite having created him.
He did ask Winkler, but explained: "It's never gonna happen,
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"It was a deal that was done unbeknownst to me by people that I thought were close to me and they basically gave away whatever rights I would have had."
"At the time I was so excited to be working and I didn't understand this is a business,
"Who knew Rocky would go on for another 45 years? I've never used one [line of dialogue] from anyone else — and the irony is that I don't own any of it. The people who have done literally nothing control it."
Poor old Sly, eh?
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A victim of his own success, he claims.
Stallone also had some problems recently with Rocky IV co-star Dolph Lundgren and Winkler after the pair developed a spin-off based on Lundgren’s Ivan Drago character.
However, he’s since sorted stuff out with Lundgren at least.
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He said: "I'm actually calling him today because he underwent some ankle situation,
"The Dolph thing, again, this is a classic case of them going around and trying to continually cherry pick aspects of 'Rocky' without even asking me if I want to join in."
"I'm not an executive producer on the 'Creed' movies. Ryan Coogler is. Michael B. Jordan is. [Winkler and fellow producer Robert Chartoff's] children are.
“Not mine. I'm the only one left out."
Topics: US News, Sylvester Stallone, Film and TV, Celebrity