Per Deadline, Matt Dillon has joined the cast of I Play Rocky as Frank Stallone Sr., father of Sylvester Stallone. The film revolves around the making of Rocky, the 1976 movie that launched Stallone’s career and went on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture.
Anthony Ippolito (The Offer) will Stallone in the movie. Stephan James (If Beale Street Could Talk) will be stepping into the shoes of Carl Weathers, and it was also announced earlier today that AnnaSophia Robb (Rebel Ridge) would be playing Sylvester’s first wife, Sasha Czack. Peter Farrelly (Green Book) will direct from a script by Peter Gamble (Trenches).
The film “tells the true story of an unknown actor with an unshakable belief that he wasn’t just meant to write Rocky — he was meant to be Rocky Balboa. Told no at every turn, Stallone bets everything on himself, holding the line on playing the lead against seemingly impossible odds. The result is the ultimate underdog story behind the ultimate underdog movie.“
Stallone Sr. immigrated to the U.S. from Italy as a child and later opened up several barber shops, salons, and beauty schools. In Sly, the 2023 Netflix documentary, Stallone explained that his father was a complicated man, but also physically and emotionally abusive. “My father was Rambo in reality,” he said. “Nothing was ever settled verbally.” Despite this, Stallone had his father make a cameo appearance in Rocky as a timekeeper.
In a statement last year, producer Christian Baha said, “When I first read Peter Gamble’s energetic and poignant script, I knew it captured something very special. The story of I Play Rocky is as unique as Sylvester Stallone himself, a seeming Everyman with an undeniable gift who needs to share it with the world and refuses to take ‘no’ for an answer. And like the hero of our film, Baha Productions needed grit and determination as we fought for years to make this project into a reality. We are so fortunate to have teamed up with Toby Emmerich and Peter Farrelly, two legendary talents who not only share but enhance our vision of the film.“
