Rocky Wants His Rights
paulieb2003@gmail.com
So Stallone has been in the news lately – most notably Instagram, saying he wants at least some rights to the Rocky franchise. Stallone claims that 91 year old super producer Irwin Winkler, who has the rights and has produced every Rocky and Creed movie should sell Stallone some of the rights to the iconic character.
“I would love to have what’s left of my rights back before passing it on to only your children – I believe that to be a fair gesture” Stallone posted on his personal Instagram.
Meaning the 91 yr old Winkler is planning on passing down the Rocky rights to his son, David Winkler, who has produced the two Creed films, and possibly the Drago projects as well, which Stallone has so far been left out of.
Stallone, now 76 years old, made Rocky famous back in 1976 when he wrote the script in 3 days, and starred in the picture as well. Since then the franchise has been going strong with sequels, two Creed films and now a Drago project has been announced. Stallone has said he has tried many times throughout the years to get some rights to Rocky, but was told he was paid generously for his work, and that was enough.
Getting Rocky made of course was an uphill battle. Stallone was never wanted for the part – so he battled and fought and part of the deal was Stallone had to sign over any and all rights, royalties and ownership of the character and franchise, in order to get this film made. Stallone did it, and now regrets it, but hey – it completely changed his life, so he can’t complain, even though he is.
I think what we are seeing here are two old men, who want to leave a golden goose for their children, and only one of them has possession of it right now, that one man being Irwin Winkler.
Stallone first started insulting Irwin about not selling him any portion of the rights to Rocky – but then really insulted him when he found out he was not being asked to be involved in any part of the Drago project. So these days Stallone has been firing with both barrels at the 91 year old man, who probably has no idea what instagram even is, to be honest.
Should Stallone be given some Rocky rights? If he signed them over to Winkler, I don’t see why Winkler would sell them back. After all, Winkler has kids too.
Well what about Rambo? I think Stallone and Hollywood effectively killed off any more Rambo projects with that last horrible debacle they called Rambo: Last Blood (2019). That trash was a rehash of Taken, but with an old Stallone fighting to get back the daughter of his maid. What? Exactly. I don’t think Rambo will be making any more films, unless of course it’s with a new hot shot of an actor, and I don’t know if Stallone has rights to that character to get any kind of behind the scenes role. Even the novelist David Morrell, who created Rambo, was like, “please, stop”.
So Stallone is running out of choices, and he should, he’s 76! You don’t see Arnold Schwarzenegger posting comments about wanting rights to Conan or Commando. You make your deals and you live with it. I guess I’m kind of on Irwin Winkler’s side on this topic. Why sell off your golden goose when your son is doing so well with it? Anyway – that’s it for this week, kids – email me with your thoughts and questions and we’ll discuss! See ya next Thurs!
