The Stallone Story
Joseph Clough
The Sylvester Stallone story... pure inspiration
Stallone was sitting at home watching a fight between Weppner and Ali. Weppner was getting slaughtered but despite this he kept holding his ground and coming back for more. This underdog was really fighting for it despite the slim chance he would even get close to winning.
This one boxing match inspired Sylvester Stallone to start writing based on his inspiration from the boxing match. He wrote for over 24 hours straight and after which he had finished writing the entire script to Rocky.
He started trying to sell the screenplay to as many producers with enormous numbers of rejections. This went on for months and months.
He was so poor by this time that he decided he had to sell his best friend, his dog. Stallone waited outside of a local liquor store asking people if they would buy his dog. Eventually someone bought the dog for around $50. He was devastated to have to do this.
He kept pursuing this story that he had written. Eventually someone loved it and they agreed to do the movie. He was wrapped and told them that he wanted to play the part of Rocky.
They declined and told him he was a writer not an actor. Stallone disagreed and told them he was an actor. He declined there offer of over $100 000 despite his current poverty.
A couple of weeks later they contacted him with an even higher offer and Stallone still insisted that he play Rocky. The once again declined. Was he nuts? I mean the man was poor, he could barely even eat.
The offer kept rising just so he would sell them the film without playing the part. The price eventually got to around $400 000 and still he declined. He was certain that he was actor and that was it, there was no compromise.
Eventually they offered Stallone a measly $25000 so they weren't throwing their money away by having him as the lead role. He accepted. Then the first thing he did was go back to the liquor store to buy back his dog.
He waited 3 days for the guy to come by and finally there he was with his dog. He offered the guy $150 to buy back the dog, the man declined. The offer kept rising, but again, Stallone knew his outcome and kept pursuing his goal.
It ended up costing him $15000 and a part in the movie to buy back his dog. The guy and the dog are in Rocky.
As for the film....... it won Academy Award for best picture in 1976. At the awards ceremony he read out all the rejection slips from those who said the film would be sappy, predictable and a film that no one would want to watch.