It was only a matter of time before Sylvester Stallone’s career to becoming an actor materialized. The Amazon MGM Studios movie, I Play Rocky, has officially found its leading star to portray the Hollywood actor before his rise to fame.
According to Deadline, Anthony Ippolito has been cast in the leading role as a young Stallone. The movie is set to follow the actor during one of the riskiest yet most groundbreaking moments of his career, writing and starring in Rocky.
“A struggling actor with a partially paralyzed face and a speech impediment writes a script that a big movie studio wants to buy, but he refuses to sell it unless he gets to play the lead,” reads the synopsis from Deadline.
“Turning down an offer of life-changing money, he instead works for pennies to get the movie made with himself in the starring role. The movie becomes the biggest box office hit of 1976, notching 10 Oscar nominations and winning Best Picture. The true story of the making of the iconic movie Rocky.”
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Rocky was released in theaters, having worked with a $1.1 million budget, and hit $225 million at the box office. The movie spawned a franchise that led to five more movie installment until 2006. It then became a three-film spinoff series starring Michale B. Jordan. Stallone did not appear in Creed III, but stayed on as a producer.
Details on who else has been cast in the movie are still under wraps. Peter Farrelly is set to direct I Play Rocky, with Toby Emmerich and Christian Baha attached as producers. Penning the script is Peter Gamble.
Ippolito is a rising actor known for playing the role of Al Pacino in the Paramount+, The Offer. He also played a role in Netflix’s Purple Hearts, starred as young Adam Sandler in Pixels, and was in the series Deadbeat.
