Amazon MGM Studios has released the second official trailer for I Play Rocky, and it leans into the gamble at the center of the film: a young Sylvester Stallone, played by Anthony Ippolito, betting that the only actor who could bring Rocky Balboa to the screen was himself.
Long before Rocky became a phenomenon, Stallone was a struggling actor with a script about a small-time Philadelphia club fighter and one condition that nearly sank the whole thing. He would sell the screenplay only if he played the lead. The interest was real, but so was the pressure to hand Balboa to an established star, and Stallone, with almost nothing to fall back on, refused the safer money and held his ground.
Academy Award winner Peter Farrelly directs from a script by Peter Gamble. Around Ippolito, the cast includes AnnaSophia Robb, Toby Kebbell, P.J. Byrne, Jay Duplass and Kiki Seto, featuring Matt Dillon, with Stephan James and Tracy Letts. The film is produced by Toby Emmerich, Christian Baha, Farrelly, Paul Currie and Michele Weiss, and is rated PG-13.
Fans in New York, Los Angeles and Philadelphia can see the film ahead of release at early access screenings on November 1 and 4, with tickets on sale now. I Play Rocky opens in select theaters November 6 and reaches theaters everywhere November 20. TDN introduced Ippolito’s Stallone earlier this month in the film’s first official clip.