'I Play Rocky' Faces Oscar Category Dilemma: Original or Adapted?

Sylvester Stallone wrote "Rocky" in three days. Deciding which Oscar screenplay category the film about him writing it belongs to is taking far longer.

Amazon MGM Studios' "I Play Rocky" has triggered multiple conversations among the studio, the Writers Guild of America, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the film's creative team over whether Peter Gamble's script will compete as an original or an adapted screenplay. No determination has been made, according to sources. Amazon MGM and the Academy declined to comment.

Thursday, Nov. 12, is the final deadline for studios to submit Official Screen Credits forms to the Academy for the 99th Academy Awards in the best picture, animated feature and general entry categories. No films submitted afterward will be considered.

What does the dispute turn on?

Gamble conceived and wrote the script as an original. It is not based on a book, article, memoir or any other single published work. He drafted it on spec, and Bellevue Productions shared it with Christian Baha of Baha Films, who came aboard as a producer alongside Toby Emmerich. Director Peter Farrelly, who helmed best picture winner "Green Book" (2018), eventually signed on. It is Gamble's second produced feature script after "Office Uprising" (2018).

But "Rocky" is one of Hollywood's most established pieces of IP, and sources say some within each organization are weighing whether the screenplay fits better in adapted, the category for scripts built on previously established material. Rocky Balboa, Adrian and Apollo Creed are preexisting characters, and Farrelly's film restages some of the 1976 movie's best-known scenes, written half a century ago.

"I Play Rocky" expands nationwide Nov. 20, the same day WGA submissions close, but the guild will not weigh in. The film was not produced under a WGA signatory agreement, so the guild cannot classify the screenplay or consider it for the WGA Awards, even though Gamble is a member. That leaves the decision entirely to the Academy's Writers Branch executive committee, which makes its own determinations and has broken with the WGA before.

How will the Academy decide?

According to the Academy's screenplay submission FAQ for the 99th Oscars, films do not submit to a specific writing category. The Writers Branch executive committee reviews each eligible title and generally defers to the WGA's classification — except when the guild has not classified a film, as with "I Play Rocky," or its classification "has been called into question."

The guidelines cut both ways. A script is generally deemed adapted if it is based on a sequel, a remake, an existing film or "pre-existing characters," but original if it tells a true story in which the writer "performed their own research and used multiple sources." While a determination is under review, the committee may ask the credited writers for a statement. Once it rules, the decision is final, with no appeals or additional materials accepted.

The precedent is uncomfortable. In January 2024, Greta Gerwig's "Barbie" moved to adapted after Warner Bros. campaigned it as an original and the WGA classified it that way; Barbie and Ken existed as Mattel dolls long before Gerwig and Noah Baumbach turned them into a billion-dollar sensation. The script earned an adapted nomination and lost to Cord Jefferson's "American Fiction." Barry Jenkins' "Moonlight," Damien Chazelle's "Whiplash" and the Coens' "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs" all carried original labels from the WGA before the Academy shifted them. The Academy also treats sequels as adaptations, which put "Before Sunset," "Toy Story 3," "Top Gun: Maverick" and "Glass Onion" in adapted.

That rule is being tested again this season. Aaron Sorkin's "The Social Reckoning," dramatizing whistleblower Frances Haugen's 2021 Facebook leak and Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Horwitz's coverage, was initially marketed as a sequel to "The Social Network" (2010). The WGA classified it as an original. There is no word on whether the Academy's committee will accept that designation.

What is the counterargument?

"I Play Rocky" is not a sequel, a prequel or a spinoff. It is a biographical drama about a real person, and biopics have routinely competed as originals. Dustin Lance Black won original screenplay for "Milk" even though Harvey Milk's life had been chronicled in the Oscar-winning documentary "The Times of Harvey Milk." Anthony McCarten's "Darkest Hour" also competed as original despite covering Winston Churchill's first weeks as prime minister.

Making-of movies have produced originals too. "Saving Mr. Banks," about the making of "Mary Poppins," competed as an original but missed a nomination. So did "Saturday Night," following the 90 minutes before the first televised "Saturday Night Live" episode. Jack Fincher's "Mank," on Herman J. Mankiewicz's work on "Citizen Kane" (1941), was deemed original and also missed, even as the film led the field with 10 nominations. When a making-of film lands in adapted, there is usually a book behind it, as with "The Disaster Artist," based on Greg Sestero and Tom Bissell's 2013 nonfiction book.

Notably, Amazon MGM owns the "Rocky" franchise. The 1976 original earned 10 Oscar nominations and won best picture, and Stallone was nominated for best actor and original screenplay. Farrelly knows the original side firsthand, having shared that Oscar for "Green Book" — another true story with no single published source.

What does the category change for the race?

Both fields are stacked. In original, Jesse Eisenberg ("The Debut"), Jordan Firstman ("Club Kid"), Mike Leigh ("Tender Loving Care"), Martin McDonagh ("Wild Horse Nine") and Simon Rich ("Artificial") are in the conversation. A move to adapted would pit Gamble against Christopher Nolan's "The Odyssey," Drew Goddard's "Project Hail Mary," Rashida Jones and Will McCormack's "The Invite," Los Javis' "La Bola Negra" and Denis Villeneuve's unscreened "Dune: Part Three."

The film has momentum. Since its TIFF world premiere, it finished first runner-up for the People's Choice Award behind "La Bola Negra," was runner-up at Middleburg and won the audience choice award at Cinéfest Sudbury. Ippolito recently received the breakthrough award at the SCAD Savannah Film Festival. It opened Nov. 6 in seven theaters, grossing $345,000 — an average of $49,200 per location. It has already made one category call: the Golden Globes list it as a musical or comedy, alongside "Wild Horse Nine," "The Debut" and "Project Hail Mary."

Elsewhere the question carries less weight. The Golden Globes put all screenplays in one category, while BAFTA and the Critics Choice Awards generally accept the studio's submission. The Academy's final word likely will not surface until nominations voting opens Jan. 11, 2027, with Oscar nominations announced Jan. 21 and the 99th Oscars held March 14.