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Stallone vs Winkler for the rights to the iconic Rocky franchise.

Sylvester Stallone has taken to Twitter to ask the producer behind the hit franchise Rocky, to hand over the rights to the legacy so that he has something to leave to his kids. 

It might come as news to know that even though, Stallone wrote and starred in the iconic 1976 boxing movie as well as its sequels, he doesn’t lay claim to any of the film rights, or the equity that accrues year after year as the royalties and monies roll in, and has in fact, been under the control of Irwin Winkler for the last 46 years.  

Stallone wants the rights to the franchise for his kids, but Irwin Winkler doesn’t appear to be budging – or if he is, he’s not making it public, so Stallone has taken to the socials in a bid to give it the attention he thinks it deserves.

rocky film
Credit: KWS

Stallone made the plea in a surprise post on Twitter in which he added a very unflattering picture of a snake with a knife for a tongue. No love lost there we are guessing. Stallone wrote: “A VERY Flattering portrait of The Great Rocky/ Creed Producer, Irwin Winkler, from one of the country‘s greatest artist (sic).”

He then added: “After IRWIN controlling ROCKY for over 47 years, and now CREED, I really would like to have at least a little WHAT’s LEFT of my RIGHTS back, before passing it on to ONLY YOUR CHILDREN – I believe That would be a FAIR gesture from this 93-year-old gentleman? … “

Stallone went on to add “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.”

 “If it wasn’t for Winkler there would’ve been at least another three ‘Rockys’, that would’ve been wonderful … frankly that crew are the worst unhunman (sic) beings I’ve ever met in the movie industry. I will forever love the loyal fans and keep punching.!!! Remember it feels good to clear your heart.”

Speaking to Variety in 2019, Stallone opened up about the pain he experienced missing out on equity in the early days of signing the contract for Rocky. He felt his inexperience was taken advantage of, and that it was a huge mistake to have not signed it.  “I have zero ownership of Rocky. Every word, every syllable, every grammatical error was all my fault. 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.”

‘Rocky’ was the biggest hit of its decade, after its release in 1976 – not only taking big numbers at the box office, and winning three Oscars including Best Picture, but Stallone was nominated for Best Actor and Best Screenplay for the original script.

It wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world to sign over alittle equity surely to the man who wrote and starred in one of the most iconic films ever don’t you think? Go on Irwin, do it.