Fighting against Irwin Winkler over the rights to the sports film franchise, the 76-year-old actor calls for 'what's left of my rights back' from the producer.
- Jul 18, 2022
AceShowbiz - Sylvester Stallone has publicly called out "Rocky" producer Irwin Winkler amid dispute over ownership rights of the film franchise. Through his Instagram account, the actor has blasted the "remarkably untalented and parasitical" filmmaker.
On Saturday, July 16, Stallone posted a cover of "The Arrangement: A Love Story", a memoir of David Winkler, who is Irwin Winkler's son. In the caption, he wrote, "This unbearable worthless dreck was written by the painfully untalented David Winkler who is the son of the remarkably untalented and parasitical Producer of Rocky and Creed."
The Rocky Balboa depicter noted though, "I really respected and LOVED his wonderful partner ROBERT CHARTOFF Who had real talent and SOUL, but unfortunately passed away much too soon......."
According to Stallone, "if it wasn't for Winkler there would've been at least another three Rocky's , that would've been wonderful …" He went on blasting the crew, writing, "frankly that crew are the worst unhunman beings I've ever met in the movie industry."
"I will forever love the loyal fans," he credited fans of the franchise, before vowing that he will "keep punching.!!!" Of airing out his disgruntle on social media, he added, "REMEMBER IT FEELS GOOD TO CLEAR YOUR HEART ..."
Stallone continued making public his feud with Winkler as on Sunday he posted a drawing of the filmmaker with a blade protruding from his mouth and a body that resembles a snake. "A VERY Flattering portrait of The Great Rocky/ Creed Producer , IRWIN WINKLER, from one of the country's greatest artist," he described it.
"ALSO after IRWIN controlling ROCKY for over 47 years , and now CREED, , I really would like have at least a little WHAT's LEFT of my RIGHTS back, before passing it on to ONLY YOUR CHILDREN," he captioned the image. "I believe That would be a FAIR gesture from this 93 year old gentleman ?"
The "Creed" star went on lamenting, "This is a painful subject That eats at my soul , because I wanted to leave something of Rocky for my children, but it's always great hearing from the loyal fans… Keep Punching."
Stallone first opened up about his anger about not owning rights to the films, which he wrote and starred in, in a 2019 interview with Variety. "I have zero ownership of 'Rocky'," he told the publication. "Every word, every syllable, every grammatical error was all my fault," he claimed.
"It was shocking that it never came to be, but I was told, 'Hey, you got paid, so what are you complaining about?' I was furious," he admitted about not having shares of the ownership. He, however, blamed it on his naivete and lack of business savvy at the time for not pushing the issue hard enough. "You don't want to ruffle the feathers of the golden goose," he shared.
Stallone went on to follow up the "Rocky" films with "Creed", which centers on Michael B. Jordan's Adonis "Donnie" Creed, the son of Apollo Creed, Rocky's former rival. The third "Creed" movie is set for release on November 23 and will be the first "Rocky" project that Stallone will not appear in. He serves as a producer, but Winkler also owns the rights to "Creed" because it's an extension of the "Rocky" universe.
