I Play Rocky: Film on the Making of Rocky Opens Nov. 12

A press release from the distributor Blitz Film about I Play Rocky reached the Srpske Novine newsroom on Monday, November 9, 2026, at 10:43 a.m., along with a trailer and stills from the film. It opens in cinemas across Serbia on November 12, and according to the release the premiere takes place that day at Concept Cinema by CineStar in Ada Mall. CineStar lists the film as a biopic with a running time of 2 hours and 8 minutes.

Who directed the film and who stars in it?

Peter Farrelly, director of Green Book and an Oscar winner, directed the film, and Peter Gamble wrote the screenplay. According to the release, Anthony Ippolito plays the young Sylvester Stallone, Anna Sophia Robb plays his first wife Sasha Czack, and Matt Dillon plays Stallone’s father, Frank Sr. The cast also includes Toby Kebbell, PJ Byrne, Jay Duplass, Stephen James and Tracy Letts.

The film tells the story of how Rocky came to be in 1976, fifty years after its release.

What does the release say about the making of the original?

The distributor recalls that in the early 1970s Stallone lived in New York’s Hell’s Kitchen and landed only sporadic roles, and that at one point he was homeless and slept in a train station with his dog. He wrote the screenplay himself, about an unknown boxer who gets a shot at world champion Apollo Creed. The release says he wrote it in three and a half days, to music by Buffalo Springfield, Hall & Oates and Procol Harum, and Farrelly worked those songs into the new film.

Producers Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff bought the script, but the studio United Artists wanted a well-known actor, and Ryan O’Neal was among the favorites. According to the release, Stallone turned down $360,000 to give up the role, even though his wife was pregnant at the time. The condition was that the film could not go over budget by a single dollar or run a single day late, or he would be replaced.

Rocky was shot in 28 days on a budget of about $1 million and earned more than $117 million. It received ten Oscar nominations and won three, including best picture. After Orson Welles and Citizen Kane, Stallone was the first to be nominated for both best actor and best original screenplay for the same film.

The release also notes that the producers of the original mortgaged their homes to raise money for certain scenes, among them the one with Rocky and Adrian at the ice rink. One of the first Steadicam systems was used for the run up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the crew of the new film received the original device from its inventor, Garrett Brown.

How did Ippolito land the role?

Ippolito previously played a young Al Pacino in the series The Offer, about the making of The Godfather. According to the release, he filmed his audition in the basement of his grandmother’s house on Long Island, before he knew the film would be made, and for the role he gained more than 40 pounds and trained in boxing. Stallone watched the tape and told the producers they would not find a better actor. Stallone himself did not take part in the production, but he read the script, met with the director and shared details from his life.

Sasha Czack, the distributor says, retyped the screenplay Stallone had written by hand and photographed the shoot of the original Rocky. Anna Sophia Robb learned to use a Minolta camera for the part, the same model.

What do the director and cast say?

Peter Farrelly said in the distributor’s release:

One of the things I love most about this story is the moment when Stallone tells the producers and the studio: “I won’t give up this role for a million or for ten million dollars, because there are things in life that aren’t about money.” Today everything revolves around money. And here we have a man who says: “I don’t care about the money, I have to do this.” They couldn’t buy him. The idea that everyone is ready to compromise, and Stallone wasn’t, became more and more important to me as I worked on the film.

Anthony Ippolito described in the same release how he came to audition:

I heard Stallone say in an interview that he would love to make a film about how Rocky came to be. I thought maybe I could send him a tape of me playing Rocky. I knew the chances were very slim. Still, I filmed an audition in my grandmother’s basement on Long Island. I bought a big punching bag and hung it up, a friend filmed me, and my cousin stood in the corner holding a lamp.

Ippolito added this about the role itself:

People are very emotionally attached to the character of Rocky. Stallone put himself completely into that character, so much of his life and his philosophy of life, that trying to bring all of that to the screen felt like an enormous responsibility to me. It all started as something very small, a black-and-white tape I made in my grandmother’s basement, without even knowing this film would be made. And then I found myself on set, surrounded by 250 people working on it. Everyone was inspired and deeply connected to the original film. Making this film was truly special.

Anna Sophia Robb, who plays Sasha Czack, stated in the release:

This story would not have been possible without Sasha’s faith in her partner and her vision. People need that firm support from someone who will tell them: “Forget what everyone is saying, I believe in you.” Just imagine, Sasha was pregnant, they had no money, and she still believed in his vision and stood completely behind him. That takes passion and unconditional faith in another person. It all comes down to relationships between people. It was very exciting to bring that kind of hope to life.

I Play Rocky is distributed in Serbian cinemas by Blitz Film, and CineStar’s website lists the start of screenings as November 12, 2026.