Peter Farrelly's I Play Rocky Debuts at CinemaCon
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- Peter Farrelly's "I Play Rocky" from Amazon MGM Studios rolled out a fresh look at the pic to exhibitors and fans at CinemaCon on Wednesday night, following a young Sylvester Stallone's uphill battle to get the iconic movie made.
- Anthony Ippolito stars as Stallone, and is best known for playing Al Pacino in Paramount+'s limited series "The Offer" and for appearing in Netflix's "Purple Hearts."
- The ensemble includes AnnaSophia Robb, P.J. Byrne, Toby Kebbell, Tracy Letts, Erik Palladino, Rob Demery, Jay Duplass, Matt Dillon, Stephan James, Kiki Seto, Robert Morgan, Saul Stein and Trevor St. John, with Ippolito, Seto, Robb and James taking the CinemaCon stage.
- The unveiled footage depicts a struggling Stallone with a partially paralyzed face and a speech impediment who writes a script a big studio wants to buy but refuses to sell unless he plays the lead — turning down "life-changing money" to make the film for pennies with himself in the starring role.
- The real Rocky became the biggest box office hit of 1976, earning 10 Oscar nominations and winning Best Picture, with the broader franchise (including the Creed spinoffs) grossing more than $1.7 billion globally.
- Toby Emmerich, Christian Baha and Farrelly are producing, with the script by Peter Gamble and FilmNation Entertainment handling production services and international sales.
Why it matters: Amazon MGM is leveraging a $1.7 billion-grossing franchise and CinemaCon's exhibitor audience to build theatrical pre-awareness for a Farrelly-directed origin story, while betting on Ippolito — fresh off playing Pacino in "The Offer" — to anchor a performer-led biopic about Stallone's most famous gamble.
