Stallone: One Thing About Rocky 'Eats At My Soul'

Star says 'parasitical' producer Irwin Winkler didn't assign him ownership rights
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 19, 2022 12:10 PM CDT
Stallone: One Thing About Rocky 'Eats At My Soul'
Sylvester Stallone poses for photographers at the UK launch of the streaming site Paramount in London on June 20.   (Photo by Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP)

Sylvester Stallone has taken to social media to bash Rocky producer Irwin Winkler, arguing he's withholding rights to the movie franchise that made Stallone a star. Stallone, who wrote all six movies in the initial Rocky series and directed four, called for a "FAIR gesture" from the 91-year-old producer behind the films and the spinoff Creed series, in which Stallone has also starred and held writing and producing roles. "After Irwin controlling Rocky for over 47 years, and now Creed, I really would like to have at least a little [of] WHAT'S LEFT of my rights back, before passing it on to ONLY YOUR CHILDREN," Stallone wrote in an unavailable Instagram post, alongside "a portrait of Winkler as a knife-tongued serpent," per Variety.

Stallone also complained about having "zero ownership of Rocky" in a 2019 interview with Variety. "It was shocking that it never came to be, but I was told, 'Hey, you got paid, so what are you complaining about?'" he said. Winkler has reportedly been surprised by the complaints. Per Variety, Stallone "earned net points off of the 1976 original" and received a percentage of the gross box-office revenue from early Rocky sequels. But Stallone complained Sunday that the "untalented and parasitical" Winkler hadn't assigned him any portion of the rights to the series, per the Guardian. "This is a painful subject that eats at my soul, because I wanted to leave something of Rocky for my children," wrote Stallone, who People notes won't appear in the upcoming Creed III. (More Sylvester Stallone stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X