Home · Entertainment · Nov 6 archive
Indie Films 'I Play Rocky,' 'Club Kid,' and 'Wild Horse Nine' Launch This Weekend
· Confirmed
In Short: Three indie films, 'I Play Rocky,' 'Club Kid,' and 'Wild Horse Nine,' debut this weekend, each with unique stories and star power.
The new film 'I Play Rocky' chronicles Sylvester Stallone's journey from an unknown actor to the star of the iconic boxing drama 'Rocky,' directed by Peter Farrelly.
Stallone, then 29, wrote the script for 'Rocky' after being inspired by a real-life underdog boxer, Chuck Wepner, who fought Muhammad Ali.
The film delves into Stallone's writing process and the challenges he faced in getting 'Rocky' produced, including his refusal to sell his script unless he played the lead.
In 'Club Kid,' Jordan Firstman makes his directorial debut with a father-son comedy that premiered at Cannes. The film follows a hard-partying New York City club promoter whose life is upended by the arrival of his 10-year-old son.
'Club Kid' opens in limited release across six theaters in New York and Los Angeles, expanding into Thanksgiving weekend.
The film's recreation of 1970s Philadelphia is noted for its flat, overlit aesthetic, which contrasts with the gritty texture of the original 'Rocky.'
Stallone's determination and early struggles are highlighted, with the film relying on a sappy formula that draws satisfaction from audience recognition of specific elements of the 'Rocky' production.
'Club Kid' is 100% Rotten Tomatoes Certified Fresh, with Firstman also starring as the club promoter.
Background
The new film 'I Play Rocky' celebrates Sylvester Stallone's journey from an unknown actor to an A-list sensation.
I Play Rocky is a 2026 American biographical drama film directed by Peter Farrelly and written by Peter Gamble. It follows the development and production of the film Rocky (1976).
The Club Kids were a New York City-based artistic and fashion-conscious youth movement composed of nightlife personalities active from the late 1980s to 1996. Coined by a 1988 New York cover story, the Club Kids crossed over into the public consciousness through appearances on daytime talk shows, magazine editorials, fashion campaigns and music videos.
Wild Horse Nine is a 2026 black comedy spy thriller film written and directed by Martin McDonagh. A co-production of the United Kingdom, United States, and Chile, it stars John Malkovich, Sam Rockwell, Steve Buscemi, Tom Waits, and Parker Posey.
What's confirmed
- In 1976, hit boxing drama Rocky turned its "absolutely broke" and unknown lead actor and screenwriter, Sylvester Stallone, into an A-list sensation.
- Struggling Philadelphia boxer Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) has a chance to become a somebody when heavyweight champion Apollo Creed come up with the Bicentennial gimmick of fighting a sure-ringer & easily winning the bout himself. But someone forgot to tell Rocky, who trains earnestly. And in the climactic fight sequence, the "Italian Stallion" gets his wish: to go the distance...against all the odds!
- This is also timed with the release of the upcoming I Play Rocky movie, a fictionalized version of the making of this original film and how they pulled off a tiny miracle filming it.
- The very first Rocky movie opened in December 1976.
- Stallone, however, wrote the thing, and he flatly refuses every offer to step aside and let someone bigger play Rocky.
- After watching Chuck Wepner, a massive underdog, last fifteen rounds against heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali, Stallone is sparked into an overnight writing frenzy that produces the script for Rocky.
- Event: Rocky 50th anniversary celebration and Rocky in Concert · Kings Theatre, Brooklyn · November 5, 2026 · Conversation: Sylvester Stallone and composer Bill Conti with Gayle King, later joined by Anthony Ippolito and director Peter Farrelly · Also attending: AnnaSophia Robb, screenwriter Peter Gamble, producers Toby Emmerich, Christian Baha and Michele Weiss · Tie-in: Amazon MGM Studios’ I Play Rocky, opening in select theaters November 6 and nationwide November 20 King sat down with Stallone and Conti to talk about how Rocky came together and what it took for Stallone to get his underdog story on screen.
- A true story of an unknown actor who believed he wasn’t meant to just write Rocky, but to play Rocky Balboa.
What's still developing
- It's a story told in crowd-pleasing new film I Play Rocky.
- "He was coming up to 30 years old, he'd been trying to make it in the industry for quite a while, and I think he viewed Rocky as 'this is it' for him."
- After many challenges on the road to getting it made, Rocky became the biggest box-office hit of 1976 and won best picture at the 1977 Oscars.
- Rocky is directed by prolific American filmmaker John G.
- If Stallone was bothered by reviewers like Janet Maslin calling “Rocky II” lifeless, he made his retort in the form of the propulsive “Rocky III,” which refined the “Rocky” formula and created the screenwriting sensibility that would define the majority of Stallone’s 1980s output.
- Yet he followed “Rocky” with two movies that established the precedent for the career to come, the labor drama “F.I.S.T.” and the wrestling picture “Paradise Alley,” on both of which the actor did double duty as a writer.
- Like “Rocky” itself, it’s an inspiring and extremely entertaining crowd-pleaser; it also devotes a surprising amount of screen time to Stallone’s writing process and the machinations required to actually get his screenplay produced — the movie doesn’t get to the actual production of “Rocky” until over an hour into its running time.
- After “Rocky” won the Oscar for Best Picture (Stallone was nominated for his screenplay but had the bad luck to be up against Paddy Chayefsky for “Network”), Stallone no longer had to write to find parts — he was presumably getting acting offers thrown at him every time he picked up the phone.
- Factor in that he wrote or co-wrote every “Rocky” and “ Rambo ” movie and even worked on the scripts for one-off oddities like “Rhinestone,” and it becomes clear that Stallone’s been nearly as single-minded about writing as “I Play Rocky” depicts him when it comes to acting.
- Ippolito plays a then-unknown Stallone, who had written a part he was determined to play, even if it meant risking the movie altogether.
- Even if someone hasn’t seen Rocky or Rambo, or Sylvester Stallone in any movie, they most likely know the face, and they sure as hell know the voice, which is often a punching bag (pun intended) for jokes and mockery.
- Stallone's success with 'Rocky' led him to write and star in subsequent films, including the 'Rambo' series, establishing a career as both an actor and a screenwriter.