Stallone Approves: The Making-of-'Rocky' Film 'I Play Rocky' Opens Nov. 20

“I Play Rocky,” Peter Farrelly's film about the making of the 1976 drama “Rocky,” opens in theaters nationwide on Nov. 20, carried by a warm Toronto reception and Stallone's own blessing.

The original "Rocky" grossed $225 million worldwide — $1.33 billion in today's money — earned 10 Oscar nominations and won three, including best picture. The new film, which debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, retraces how a then-struggling, 30-year-old Sylvester Stallone wrote a script about a struggling boxer and refused to sell it despite producers offering increasing sums for him to walk away.

The story behind the new film mirrors its subject. Peter Gamble, 52, a longtime ghostwriter, penned the screenplay eight years ago while teaching screenwriting at the University of Southern California. "I'm sitting here struggling to take care of my family," he said, describing himself as "barely holding it together." Too broke to buy books, he relied on internet research and wrote the screenplay in two weeks — close to Stallone's reported three-day turnaround for "Rocky."

Who got the film made?

Stallone and his producing partner passed on the script. It sat at another production company for years until producer Thomas Augsberger reached out after the 2023 writers' strike ended. "It was the first time I ever felt seen outside of a very small group," Gamble said. Augsberger died suddenly a few months later, but had already passed the script to Michele Weiss, Toby Emmerich's producing partner. Emmerich sent it to Farrelly, who wanted Stallone's blessing.

Stallone, now 80, loved the script and met Farrelly and Emmerich at the Polo Lounge in Beverly Hills. "He said, 'I approve,'" Farrelly recalled. The actor stayed out of production; Farrelly warned him that his involvement as executive producer might suggest the film would pull punches.

Who plays the young Stallone?

Anthony Ippolito, 26 — best known for playing Al Pacino in the 2022 Paramount+ series "The Offer" — taped an unsolicited audition before he ever saw a script. "Nobody was asking me to audition," he said. "I just did that until they were either going to say stop or wanted to talk more." He was the first and only actor Farrelly considered. The first tape "was already perfect," the director said, "except he had to gain weight." Ippolito spent a year at the gym and put on more than 30 pounds.

Stallone, who watched the film, told "CBS Mornings": "It was very surreal because at first I was going to be hypercritical. Like, that's me. 'I don't walk like that.' But I did walk like that. I did talk like that." Farrelly said Stallone's verdict on Ippolito was: "He's not acting. He's becoming."

The cast also includes Stephan James as Carl Weathers, Matt Dillon as Stallone's father Frank, Tracy Letts as a skeptical executive, AnnaSophia Robb as Stallone's first wife Sasha, and Toby Kebbell and P.J. Byrne as producers Bob Chartoff and Irwin Winkler.

What does the film leave unsaid?

Winkler, 95, who makes a cameo, approved: "I thought it was terrific." But the title card celebrating the 10 nominations does not dwell on what followed — Stallone and Winkler famously fell out over ownership of the franchise. "We really haven't spoken," Winkler said. "He does his television series, and I'm making the 'Creed' movies."

For Farrelly, 69, the release marks a calmer ride than "Green Book," his 2019 best picture winner whose Oscars run was tinged with controversy. "People have never been nicer to me," he said of the new film. "It's a story about somebody who has integrity, right to the end, and it's rare to see that today. I hope people get lifted up."