With Sylvester Stallone currently spending most of his time on "The Expendables 2," it looks like Rocky Balboa might have finally hung up his gloves on the big-screen, after the sixth entry in the series a few years back. But the blue-collar boxer is finding a new string to his bow: showtunes. Stallone and title-winning siblings and actual fighters Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko are joining forces to finally bring “Rocky” to the Broadway stage, where it was… always… meant… to be. It’s hard to remember that Stallone wrote the thing, and is an Academy Award-nominated screenwriter and actor.
The Klitschko brothers, whose previous producing efforts are mentioned in the following parentheses (Nothing) are going to personally train the actor who stars in the "Rocky" musical, which will actually be a good idea, as to make the high wire dancing and boxing look as realistic as possible.
Stallone has somehow roped in great talent to work on this thing (probably using money).“The Producers” writer Thomas Meehan will pen the book, and “Ragtime” songwriters Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty are writing the music. The polymath pugilist is clearly very excited to get working on the project. “"At the end of the day, Rocky is a love story and he could never have reached the final bell without Adrian,” said Stallone. “To see this story coming to life on a musical stage makes me proud. And it would make Rocky proud."
The play will debut in Philadelphia, PA Hamburg, Germany in 2012, and Stallone plans to tour the show all over the world after its debut. There’s no way this will be bad. [THR]