Quartz
I Play Rocky revisits Stallone's fight to make Rocky
Elevation Pictures has slated I Play Rocky for Nov. 6, and the film builds its drama on one stubborn demand from a struggling actor who wants the lead in the boxing script he penned. The magazine's writers frame the story as a pair of underdogs sharing one arc. Rocky Balboa, the fictional Philadelphia fighter, tries to go the distance in the ring. Sylvester Stallone, the real man who invented him, chases the same goal in his career.
The screenplay handed Rocky a long-shot opportunity that mirrored his creator's position. Stallone conceived his hero as a back-street boxer who lands an exhibition bout against Apollo Creed, a flashy world heavyweight champion, as part of the U.S. bicentennial, according to Smithsonian magazine. Stallone guarded the character with equal tenacity. He refused to sell the story unless he played the title role. The bargain tied the fictional fight to the real one. The bout against Creed would reach the screen with its author throwing the punches or not at all. The man pitching the project demanded the same improbable shot he had built for Rocky.
Anthony Ippolito plays the young Sly, a dreamer who will do anything to turn his ambition into reality. The part asks Ippolito to capture Stallone at a moment when the young writer's leverage came down to a new manuscript and a refusal to let anyone else star in it. The casting folds a second layer into the story. Ippolito headlines a picture about a man whose entire struggle hinges on headlining one.
The film, an account of Stallone's rise to stardom, appeared in the lineup of the Santa Fe International Film Festival. Its opening day also belongs to Club Kid, Wild Horse Nine, and Godzilla Minus Zero. A story about beating long odds will open against a crowded field, a fitting test for a film about an actor who refused to step aside.
Martin McDonagh's Wild Horse Nine, set for a Nov. 6 release through Searchlight Pictures, will send two CIA operatives to Easter Island with a tell-all in progress that their employer would prefer to bury. John Malkovich plays the seasoned agent, and Sam Rockwell $ROK +3.44% plays his younger counterpart. One of the pair is writing a book about the dirty tricks the two men have used in the name of American diplomacy. The magazine's writer notes that the CIA tends to frown on such projects and hints that the mission itself may involve scheming between rival agencies.
A veteran paired with a junior colleague hands McDonagh a natural frame for the relationships the critic expects from him. The filmmaker behind Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and The Banshees of Inisherin arrives with a predicted checklist of rapid-fire dialogue, superb acting, father-figure bonds heavy with psychological baggage, and pitch-black humor. Profanity appears on that list twice, a joke that shows how central foul language has become to a McDonagh script.
Easter Island will claim a larger share of the frame than McDonagh first intended. He drove around the island to work out which of its stone statues suited each scene and what mood each would lend. Once the crew landed, he has said, they grasped that the island deserved a bigger presence in the movie. The ocean, the roads, and the wild horses all needed to reach the screen.
Wild Horse Nine played in competition at the Venice Film Festival, according to TIME. The outlet's reviewer linked it to In Bruges and The Banshees of Inisherin through a shared fascination with male friendships riven by conflict. Malkovich's veteran and Rockwell's junior agent fit that pattern, with a mentor bond strained by one man's plan to publish the CIA's misdeeds.
Steve Buscemi, Tom Waits, and Parker Posey round out the ensemble behind the two leads. Placing that many sharp performers on one island gives McDonagh room to let his rapid verbal sparring run across the whole cast, beyond the central duo.
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By Cris Tolomia