A tale from the celebrity gossip files:
For some time now, Sylvester Stallone and Hollywood producer Irwin Winkler have been feuding.
The basics of this feud are:
1. Stallone wrote, created the characters, starred in, and made the Rocky franchise and its spinoffs (the 3 Creed movies) possible and beloved
2. Winkler and his business partner at the time took all the financial and professional risk, including taking a risk on Stallone (who was a nobody – as much a nobody from the neighborhood as the character he wanted to play), and even had to put their houses up as collateral to get the funding so the movie could be made at all
3. It was spelled out and clear the producers owned the IP, not Stallone
4. Years later, Winkler gave ownership of the IP to his sons
5. One of his sons wrote a book about it that pissed Stallone off
6. Stallone believes he should have gotten at least some kind of ownership to pass on to his own children considering he IS the franchise at the end of the day — his ideas, stories, characters, movie direction (in all but two of the Rocky movies), acting, influence, box office draw, star power, etc
7. Stallone has been publicly complaining about it on social media ever since
There may be more to it but that is the gist.
But you know what I think?
I think one hundred years from now when people are still watching Rocky, nobody will remember Winkler or his NPC sons. But they will remember Stallone. And he will be remembered and respected with a legacy that will long outlive him, his children, and their children, and probably even their children’s children.
So what we got here is quite the irony:
After the 1st movie’s Rocky vs Apollo fight, Apollo admitted that, yes, he won against Rocky.
But, he did not “beat” Rocky.
And so it is with Winkler — he won, but didn’t beat Stallone.
It’s too bad Sly doesn’t realize that and is complaining about it on social media.
And so it is..
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Ben Settle
