Matt Dillon has formally signed on to play Frank Stallone Sr., the daddy of Sylvester Stallone, in Amazon MGM Studios’ upcoming movie I Play Rocky, which is a behind-the-scenes have a look at the creation of one in every of cinema’s most legendary underdog tales.
The movie comes from Peter Farrelly, the Oscar-winning filmmaker behind Inexperienced Guide, and stars Anthony Ippolito as a younger Sylvester Stallone.
Frank Stallone Sr. was a person of contrasts. After immigrating to the U.S. from Italy as a young person, he turned a profitable hairdresser and entrepreneur, opening a number of salons and sweetness colleges throughout the East Coast.
However, behind that hardworking, charismatic persona was an advanced and sometimes harsh father determine. In Netflix’s 2023 documentary Sly, Stallone recalled, “My father was Rambo in actuality. Nothing was ever settled verbally.”
Regardless of their strained relationship, Stallone all the time sought his father’s approval, even giving him a small cameo as a timekeeper within the unique 1976 traditional Rocky. That emotional pressure between ambition, ache, and legacy is one thing I Play Rocky appears able to discover head-on.
Written by Peter Gamble, the movie is described as “an electrifying true story about an unknown actor with an unshakable perception that he wasn’t simply meant to put in writing Rocky — he was meant to be Rocky Balboa.”
The story follows Stallone as he faces rejection after rejection, playing the whole lot on his dream and refusing to let anybody else play the lead function. It’s the last word underdog story behind one in every of cinema’s most iconic underdog motion pictures.
The movie additionally options Stephan James as Carl Weathers, the actor who famously portrayed Apollo Creed, and AnnaSophia Robb as Stallone’s first spouse, Sasha Czack.
The venture is being produced by Toby Emmerich and Christian Baha, with FilmNation Leisure dealing with manufacturing providers and worldwide gross sales.
For Dillon, this function marks a return to the form of intense, layered drama that earned him an Oscar nomination for his efficiency as Officer John Ryan in Crash. Over his profession, he’s confirmed his vary with roles in movies like The Outsiders, Rumble Fish, and Drugstore Cowboy, whereas additionally displaying off his comedic facet in hits like There’s One thing About Mary.
Most lately, Dillon appeared in Wes Anderson’s Asteroid Metropolis and the Apple TV+ collection Excessive Desert.