Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with a little look at the first few pages of ROCKY 6 as presented in Sly Magazine, which I sure as hell won't be buying... so I'm glad we got a look at the first few script pages from someone whose curiosity compelled them to read Sly: The Magazine... and strangely enough it wasn't AB King, who I'm sure is drooling in the corner, reading these 3 pages over and over again as he strokes his Rocky tattoo on his left ball (his right is called Rambo and his penis is Judge Dredd, complete with movie-accurate helmet design you know where). Enjoy!
Harry -
'Ralph Nadir' here. I was at CVS today and skimmed through a copy of Sly Magazine, Sylvester Stallone's foray into the publishing world. It cannot be a coincidence that this magazine is launching right around the time that his boxing reality show THE CONTENDER is debuting on NBC (and apparently getting very good reviews).
The magazine is basically a men's lifestyle magazine with articles on health, fitness, etc. What caught my attention was an item I wasn't expecting at all - pages from Stallone's ROCKY VI screenplay. At first I thought it was a joke, or perhaps fan fiction. However, it was billed in the magazine as "the first of three excerpts" from the "upcoming" ROCKY VI. It even included storyboard-type sketches of some scenes.
I guess Stallone is trying to drum up interest in the franchise again, but based on this script excerpt, he should probably stop the drumming.
If you were chomping at the bit wondering what Rock-o has been up to since his bare-knuckles brawl with Tommy Gunn, Stallone provides the answer: not much. Balboa lives a quiet existence in the old neighborhood and spends a lot of his time hanging out at the diner, reminiscing about the glory days. He catches up with Marie (the Atomic Hoagies Shop girl who calls him "Creepo" in the first film), whom at first he doesn't recognize. She is now "sorta" married and has a kid.
As for the other characters: Adrian is dead, having passed away in the year 2000; Rocky Jr. has a high-level job at a company called Thomison Technologies and dates the CEO's daughter; Paulie is still annoying.
Stallone does introduce one major new character - the current heavyweight champ with the eye-rolling name of Mason Dixon (gotta love those names Stallone gives his fighters, huh?). As described in the script, I saw Jamie Foxx in the role - not that Jamie would see himself in the role, of course. ;)
In this script excerpt Rocky comes across as shiftless and a bit lonely - even his own son can barely make time for him. But of course it won't stay this way. We all know the formula by now. Rocky will obviously strap on the gloves again and take on Dixon for "one last shot" at respect.
At the end of the excerpt, it reads, "TO BE CONTINUED...." but it's not too hard to envision where the script is going to go.
Ralph Nadir
