Farrelly's 'I Play Rocky' Biopic Premieres At Toronto — SkimNews
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- Peter Farrelly directed 'I Play Rocky,' a biopic chronicling the making of the 1976 classic, premiering at Toronto Film Festival as a Special Presentation with a 2-hour-8-minute runtime
- Anthony Ippolito stars as Stallone in a performance the reviewer calls emotionally devastating, recreating scenes from the actor's insistence on playing the lead he wrote despite studio pressure to cast Ryan O'Neal or a comparable name
- Amazon MGM Studios will distribute the film on November 6, 2026, with producers Toby Emmerich, Christian Baha, Farrelly, Paul Currie and Michele Weiss and a screenplay by Peter Gamble
- The film recreates iconic behind-the-scenes moments including the Philadelphia steps run (described as one of the first uses of the Steadicam), Stallone's improvised Mickey scene, and a post-credits scene of Johnny Carson introducing Stallone on The Tonight Show
- The biopic arrives in the 50th anniversary year of the original Rocky, which spawned five sequels and three Creed spinoff films starring Michael B. Jordan
- Commenters noted that Lawrence Kubik and Craig T. Rumar, Stallone's agents at Film Artists Management Enterprises who packaged the deal and fought to keep Stallone as the lead, were written out of the film entirely despite being central to the real story
Why it matters: By securing Stallone's blessing and anchoring the film on Ippolito's lead performance, Farrelly positions 'I Play Rocky' as both an awards-season vehicle for Amazon MGM and a crowd-pleaser timed to Rocky's 50th anniversary — but the omission of the real-life agents who actually packaged the deal invites pushback from those who know the behind-the-scenes history.
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