Peter Farrelly’s I Play Rocky Tells How Stallone Fought for His Breakthrough

I Play Rocky, a film about the making of Rocky in 1976, opens in select US cinemas on 6 November before expanding nationwide on 20 November. It is directed by Peter Farrelly, who won the Best Picture Oscar for Green Book, and distributed by Amazon MGM Studios.

Anthony Ippolito plays the young Sylvester Stallone. The screenplay is by Peter Gamble.

What the film is about

The film shows how an unknown actor wrote a script about a down-on-his-luck boxer from Philadelphia and fought to play the lead himself. It follows Rocky’s whole journey, from negotiations with producers Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff to the shoot and the premiere. The low-budget film went on to win the Oscar for Best Picture and made Stallone a star.

Who is in it

• Anthony Ippolito as Sylvester Stallone;
• AnnaSophia Robb as Sasha Czack, Stallone’s wife;
• Matt Dillon as Frank Stallone Sr.;
• Stephan James as Carl Weathers;
• Jay Duplass as director John G. Avildsen;
• Toby Kebbell as producer Robert Chartoff;
• P.J. Byrne as producer Irwin Winkler;
• Robert Morgan as Burgess Meredith;
• Kiki Seto as Talia Shire;
• Tracy Letts as Sandy Maddox.

How it was made

The project was announced in May 2024, and filming began on 15 October 2025 in New York, Philadelphia and Los Angeles. The cinematographer is Sean Porter, the editor is Sam Seig and the music is by Dave Palmer. The running time is 127 minutes.

What critics say

The film premiered on 12 September at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it was first runner-up for the People’s Choice Award. It holds 83% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and 62 on Metacritic. Owen Gleiberman of Variety praised how well it understands the underdog story shared by Rocky and its creator, while Robert Daniels of Screen Daily called it a walking piece of pastiche with little of the original’s humanism.

When to watch

I Play Rocky opens in select cinemas on 6 November and nationwide on 20 November. Cast and stills are on the film’s page in our AMDB database.