Anthony Ippolito has already portrayed a great Italian-American actor once in his career, playing Al Pacino in Paramount‘s limited series, “The Offer.” Now, he’ll star as another from the same generation: Sylvester Stallone in “I Play Rocky.”
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THR reports that Ippolito will play a young Stallone in the upcoming Amazon MGM drama, about the against-all-odds true story of Stallone’s quest to make his 1976 boxing drama. An unknown at the time, Stallone wrote “Rocky” with the intention to star, and was turned down time and time again before United Artists finally agreed to the actor’s terms. The film went on to become the highest-grossing picture of 1976, and won three Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
In that sense, Stallone making “Rocky” is the great underdog story behind a great underdog movie, and that’s undoubtedly what “I Play Rocky” will highlight. “Green Book” director and co-writer Peter Farrelly helms the project for Amazon MGM, and the studio plans to give it a theatrical release. Don’t be surprised if Amazon MGM has awards season hopes for “I Play Rocky” either. Farrelly won Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay for “Green Book”: couple that with the Oscar success of “Rocky,” and this film may be considered a failure if it doesn’t achieve the same.
What else do we know about “I Play Rocky” at the moment? Tony Emmerich and Christian Baha will produce the pic, with Peter Gamble penning the script. As for Ippolito, playing Stallone in the project is unquestionably his biggest role to date. Other roles besides “The Offer” for the actor include the Netflix romantic drama “Purple Hearts,” David Chase‘s “Not Fade Away,” and Adam Sandler‘s “Pixels.”
Along with Oscar hopes, expect Amazon MGM to have commercial ambitions for “I Play Rocky,” too. The “Rocky” franchise (including the recent “Creed” spin-offs) is one of the most successful film franchises of all time, with over $1.7 billion at the global box office. “Creed” star Michael B. Jordan has “Creed IV” in the works, but it remains unclear when he’ll direct and star in it, so expect “I play Rocky” to hit theaters first, possibly as soon as late 2026.
