Peter Farrelly (“Green Book”) is set to direct a film inspired by the story of how Sylvester Stallone came to make his 1976 boxing classic “Rocky.”
And what better way to cast the role of Stallone than to just sign up his doppelgänger? No, really—this guy looks like his duplicate. His name is Anthony Ippolito; he played Al Pacino in Paramount’s limited series “The Offer.”
Is this stunt casting?
The film is titled “I Play Rocky.” No word yet on whether Stallone gave his blessing for this project, but the plot is said to follow “a struggling actor with a partially paralyzed face and a speech impediment who writes a script that a big movie studio wants to buy, but he refuses to sell it unless he gets to play the lead.”
The logline continues: “Turning down an offer of life-changing money, he instead works for pennies to get the movie made with himself in the starring role.” The movie becomes the biggest box-office hit of 1976, garnering 10 Academy Award nominations and winning Best Picture.
It should be noted that Stallone is not mentioned in the official logline, so they might not even have the rights to use his name yet. Peter Gamble (“Office Uprising”) is writing the script for the film.
Farrelly recently released the comedy “Ricky Stanicky,” which was actually a decent laugh. Before that, he directed the mixed-reviewed “The Greatest Beer Run Ever,” and, of course, he won two Oscars for the 2018 Best Picture winner “Green Book.”