ITALIAN STALLION

Once upon a time there was this nobody named Sylvester Stallone. He wanted a shot at the big time and in true Hollywood fashion he made it happen himself. In need of a starring role with no real credits to ride on, he wrote his own script and demanded the lead. No small feat, especially in those days.

EYE OF THE TIGER

The inspiration for his script came when he saw a boxing match between unknown New Jersey boxer Chuck Wepner and the legendary Muhammad Ali. In March 1975 Wepner challenged Ali to a title fight in Cleveland, Ohio. He lasted almost the entire 15 rounds and was one of the very few to actually challenge Ali to knock him down. Ali was not able to knock him out.

A MAN POSSESSED

Truly inspired after seeing this stellar bout, Stallone went home and hashed out the script for Rocky in a mere three days.

KO'ed

The producers didn't know who Sylvester Stallone was when the script was submitted to them. After someone showed them a group photo from the film, "The Lords of Flatbush" they were more enthused about making the movie, but wondered why someone named "Stallone" had blond hair and blue eyes. Well it turns out that the producers mistook Stallone's co-star Perry King for him. When they finally saw who Stallone really was, they nearly passed on the movie.

LEADING MAN

The studio accepted the script and the film went into pre-production but they still were not entirely crazy about having Stallone star in the film, so they offered him a staggering sum of $150,000 to not be in the film and instead let Ryan O'Neal star. Stallone was not a rich man at the time, but stuck to his guns and demanded he star in his own role. The results of which changed his life forever.

ON THE LINE

The studio finally agreed to allow Stallone to star in the film, but restricted the film to be made for only one million dollars. The producers went as far as mortgaging their homes to get it financed and the film's final budget was 1.1 million dollars.

DRUNKEN BOXER

Stallone insisted that the scene where he admits his fears and doubts to Adrian the night before the fight be filmed, even though film was running far behind schedule and the producers wanted to skip it. They gave him one take at the scene. He was so nervous and worked up about botching the only scene he thought was important that he got himself drunk to perform the scene.

OSCAR OSCAR

The big fight scene at the end of the film was filmed in reverse order starting with the fifteenth round and Sylvester Stallone and Carl Weathers in heavy battered make-up. As filming continued, the make-up was slowly removed until they were at round one. Using this technique helped garner the film an Oscar for Best Film Editing.

KOOL AND THE GANG

The light jazz song Rocky plays on his record player has reached a sort of cult status despite the fact that the song, "Summer Madness" by Kool and the Gang did not appear on the movie soundtrack.

KUBRICK

The Steadi-Cam was invented by Garrett Brown with much influence by famed director Stanley Kubrick. Rocky was the first major feature film to employ the use of the Steadi-Cam.

ROCKY SIX

While many sequels have followed, none could match the fresh luster of the first. As the new Rocky DVD box set hits shelves, Stallone is still in pursuit of making another Rocky sequel, apparently this time around he would be training a new young version of himself. The sequels have faltered a bit ever since Rocky 3, which was a fitting bookend to the trilogy. However, if Stallone could write the ground-breaking original then perhaps he can find a fresh way to rejuvenate the legend once again.