Stallone packs punch ahead of ‘Creed’
There’s a scene in “Creed” where the latest boxer who challenges the upstart protege of Rocky Balboa barks, “No one cares about Balboa anymore!”
Through 40 years of Rocky as an underdog, champion, and aging fighter, fans sure do care. Dressed in robes, fedoras and boxing boots, costumed enthusiasts chanting “Rocky! Rocky! Rocky!” on Friday had one more reason to cheer for Philadelphia’s favorite fictional son.
Sylvester Stallone goes one more round as Balboa in the spinoff “Creed,” and he wants the character to tally even more before he joins Adrian, Apollo and Paulie in that great squared circle in the sky.
“There’s more to go,” Stallone said Friday. “I would like to follow this character until eventually he’s an angel.”
Stallone, writer of the first “Rocky” that earned 10 Academy Award nominations, promised more movies based on Balboa and Adonis Creed. Creed is the son of Rocky’s heavyweight rival Apollo Creed. The titular character coaxed Balboa out of retirement and into a trainer’s role in the movie set for a Nov. 25 release.
Stallone and actors Michael B. Jordan and Tessa Thompson, writer-director Ryan Coogler and producer Irwin Winkler attended a celebration of the movie atop the Philadelphia Museum of Art steps.
Mayor Michael Nutter attended a screening Thursday night and said the movie should win an Academy Award for best picture. The “Rocky” series spawned six more movies, and all the films shared a common co-star with Stallone — Philadelphia. Stallone’s run through the Italian Market and up the museum’s 72 steps in the first movie propped both locations from local landmarks into iconic tourist attractions.
“Creed” opens a modern Philadelphia to a new generation of fans: Johnny Brenda’s, Max’s Steaks, Front Street Gym. All take center stage in the film.
Jordan was immersed for nearly a year in training for a movie that probably has more fight scenes than any of the first six movies.
“Did I get hurt? I took a few real punches, for sure. Thank Sly for that one,” said Jordan.
Rocky has become as much a Philadelphia institution as the Liberty Bell, and Stallone is always greeted with a frenzy normally reserved for its real-life sports heroes.
“I started skipping rocks in the Schuylkill River over there when I was 12 years old,” said Stallone. “So all you kids in the audience there, if you don’t think you can make it up these steps of life, which is kind of represented here by this museum, don’t you believe that. Because if I can do it, you can do it.”