I Play Rocky, Peter Gamble's Script on Stallone's Big Gamble, Opens
Summary
Peter Farrelly called the USC instructor's screenplay "one of the best scripts I've ever read" before signing on to direct.
"I Play Rocky, Peter Farrelly's film about Sylvester Stallone's fight to make and star in Rocky, opened in select U.S. theaters on Thursday ahead of a wide release on November 20, IndieWire reported. Amazon MGM Studios is releasing the film, which stars Anthony Ippolito as Stallone, with Tracy Letts as a studio executive and AnnaSophia Robb as Stallone's first wife, Sasha Czack, according to a review in Philadelphia's Billy Penn.
The screenplay is by Peter Gamble, a USC instructor whose script reached Farrelly through producer Toby Emmerich. ""It's one of the best scripts I've ever read,"" Farrelly said in an interview reported by Geo News. He described Stallone as broke while writing Rocky, to the point of selling his dog, and said Stallone refused offers to step aside for a bigger star, accepting terms that would let the studio replace him if the shoot fell a day behind.
Early reviews have been warm but measured: IndieWire called it a punchy crowdpleaser, The A.V. Club a likeable underdog and Billy Penn gave it three stars out of five. The film also won the narrative audience award at the Denver Film Festival, which ended November 1."
