I PLAY ROCKY: First Look at Anthony Ippolito as Young Sylvester Stallone in the Making of a Hollywood Legend

Amazon MGM has shared the first look I play Rockythe upcoming film that dives into the incredible true story behind the making of Rocky.

Movie stars Antonio Ippolito (The offer) as a young Sylvester Stallone, and is trying to capture the grit, desperation and determination that launched one of cinema’s greatest underdog stories.

According to the studio, “The film tells the true story of Sylvester Stallone and his unshakable belief that he shouldn’t just have written Rocky, but that he should have been Rocky Balboa.”

Before he became an action icon, Stallone was just a struggling 20-year-old actor trying to make it in Hollywood. With his face partially paralyzed and a speech impediment, he was constantly told he would never make it.

But he wrote the screenplay for Rocky and refused to sell it unless he could play the lead role himself. Despite turning down lucrative six-figure offers, he remained true to his vision.

The film was ultimately made for less than $1 million and became the biggest box office hit of 1976 and won the Oscar for Best Picture. What began as one man’s fight for a chance has become a franchise that has inspired generations and spawned… I believe spin-off decades later.

I play Rocky is directed by Peter Farrellythe director behind Green bookand is currently in production. In addition to Ippolito, the cast includes Stefano Giacomo as Carl Weathers, who originally created Rocky’s rival, Apollo Creed, as well as AnnaSophia Robb, Matt Dillon, PJ Byrne, Tracy LitAND Jay Duplass.

Farrelly is also producing the film Toby Emmerich AND Christian Bahawith Pietro Giocolo (Office riot) writing the screenplay.

When the project was first announced in 2024, Baha described it I play Rocky as “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.”

I play Rocky promises to remind the public why the story of the Italian stallion still strikes us today with the same force as almost fifty years ago.