Images: Celebrating The 40th Anniversary Of Rocky (1976) - A Collection Of Behind-The-Scenes Photos And Trivia

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December 3rd marks the 40th anniversary of the release of the boxing classic Rocky.
 

 
While it may not be a favorite of everyone, it is only one of two boxing movies to ever win the Academy Award for Best Picture and was the highest grossing picture of 1976. It would also go on to win Best Director and Best Film Editing, with seven additional nominations. Its popularity would lead to six Rocky films and the recent Creed spinoff. In celebration of the motion pictures 40th anniversary, check out this collection of behind-the-scenes videos and trivia regarding the film [All trivia was cited from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075148/trivia?ref_=tt_trv_trv].
 
 
 "After producers Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff became interested in the script, they offered writer Sylvester Stallone an unprecedented $350,000 for the rights, but he refused to sell unless they agreed to allow him to star in the film (this despite the fact that he had only $106 in the bank, no car and was trying to sell his dog because he couldn't afford to feed it). They agreed, but only on the condition that Stallone continue to work as a writer without a fee and that he work as an actor for scale. After Winkler and Chartoff purchased the film, they took it to United Artists, who envisioned a budget of $2 million, but that was on the basis of using an established star (they particularly wanted Robert Redford, Ryan O'Neal, Burt Reynolds or James Caan). United Artists didn't want Stallone to star, and when Winkler and Chartoff told them that the only way they could get him to sell the screenplay was to agree to cast him, United Artists cut the budget to $1 million, and had Chartoff and Winkler sign agreements that if the film went over budget, they would be personally liable. The final cost of the film was $1.1 million. The $0.1 million came after Chartoff and Winkler mortgaged their homes so as to complete the project."
 
 
"Sylvester Stallone insisted that the scene where he admits his fears and doubts to Adrian the night before the fight be filmed, even though production was running far behind and the producers wanted to skip it. Stallone had only one take for the scene, despite the fact that he considered it to be the most important scene in the film."

 
"Most of the scenes of Rocky jogging through Philadelphia were shot guerrilla-style, with no permits, no equipment and no extras. The shot where he runs past the moored boat for example; the crew were simply driving by the docks and director John G. Avildsen saw the boat and thought it would make a good visual, so he had Sylvester Stallone simply get out of the van and run along the quays whilst Avildsen himself filmed from the side door. A similar story concerns the famous shot of Rocky jogging through the food market. As he runs, the stall keepers and the people on the sidewalks can clearly be seen looking at him in bemusement. Whilst this works in the context of the film to suggest they're looking at Rocky, in reality, they had no idea why this man was running up and down the road being filmed from a van. During this scene, the famous shot where the stall-owner throws Rocky an orange was completely improvised by the stall owner-himself, who had no idea that a movie was being filmed and that he would be in it."

 
"During his audition, Carl Weathers was sparring with Sylvester Stallone and accidentally punched him on the chin. Stallone told Weathers to calm down, as it was only an audition, and Weathers said that if he was allowed to audition with a 'real' actor, not a stand-in, he would be able to do a lot better. Director John G. Avildsen smiled and told Weathers that Stallone was the real actor (and the writer). Weathers looked at Stallone thoughtfully for a moment, and said, "Well, maybe he'll get better." Stallone immediately offered him the role."

 
"The monologue which Rocky delivers after turning down Mickey's (Burgess Meredith) offer to manage him was completely improvised on-set by Sylvester Stallone. He has since explained that he was heavily influenced by the fact that the bathroom of the tiny apartment in which they were shooting really did stink."

 
"Writer Sylvester Stallone was inspired to write the screenplay for the film after seeing the Chuck Wepner-Muhammad Ali fight on March 24, 1975 at the Richfield Coliseum outside of Cleveland in Richfield, Ohio. Thirty-six year old Wepner was considered a moderate talent, but no one thought he had a hope against Ali. Indeed, no one expected Wepner to last more than three rounds. As such, the longer the fight went on past the opening three rounds, the more shocked people became; Wepner even managed to knock Ali down in the ninth round (although Ali has always maintained that Wepner was standing on his foot when he fell). Ali immediately opened a blistering offensive in an attempt to drop Wepner and for the next six rounds, he pummeled Wepner mercilessly, breaking his nose and opening large gashes above both his eyes. No matter how hard Ali hit him however, Wepner kept moving forward and continuing to fight (it was this specific aspect of the fight which inspired Stallone). Eventually, with 19 seconds left in the fifteenth and final round, Ali scored a TKO."

 
"The ice rink scene was originally written to feature 300 extras, but the production couldn't afford so many people. When Sylvester Stallone turned up to shoot the scene, to his horror, there was only one extra. So, Stallone hastily threw together the scene as it exists in the completed film. Ironically, this scene has become one of the most popular in the entire Rocky saga."


"When shooting the scenes in the meat-locker where he punches the slabs of beef, actor Sylvester Stallone punched the meat so hard for so long that he flattened out his knuckles. To this day, when he makes a fist, his knuckles are completely level."


"Burgess Meredith got the part of Mickey, because the other actors they considered for the role were insulted that Sylvester Stallone wanted them to read for it."


"Although Sylvester Stallone famously wrote the first draft of the script in 3 days, it went through nine sizable rewrites before it was purchased by Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff. Originally, Stallone's much darker script depicted Mickey (Burgess Meredith) as a bitter old racist, and the film ended with Rocky throwing the fight after realizing he did not want to be part of the professional boxing world."


"The iconic shot of Rocky running up the steps of Philadelphia Art Museum came about because of Steadicam inventor Garrett Brown. Brown, who was from Philadelphia, was getting ready to fly to LA to try to sell his newly invented Steadicam device. He had shot some test footage following people around corridors and from room to room, but he wanted to be able to shoot something that even the most experienced filmmakers would look at and wonder how he did it. He came up with the idea for his girlfriend to run up and down the museum steps, whilst he followed close behind her. Using this footage, Brown sold the camera on his first day in LA, and several months later, John G. Avildsen, who was prepping Rocky, saw the footage and felt that a similar type of shot would be perfect for the film. As such, Avildsen hired Brown and the Steadicam, and as Brown explains, several months after he had run up the steps filming his girlfriend, he was running back up the steps filming Sylvester Stallone."


"According to Burt Young, during filming of the scene where Paulie walks home drunk, an actual drunk wandered onto the location and told Young he wasn't acting drunk convincingly, so Young asked the man to demonstrate it. Young then copied the man's actions for the scene."


"Prior to shooting, Sylvester Stallone trained for six months with legendary fight-trainer Jimmy Gambina, who was also the film's technical advisor (and who plays the role of Jimmy, the trainer from Mighty Mick's Boxing, in both this film and Rocky V (1990)). During this period, Stallone also studied every available piece of footage of boxers Rocky Marciano and Ezzard Charles."


"Talia Shire was eager to break out of the shadow of her big brother Francis Ford Coppola and jumped at the chance to play Adrian, even for the meagre $7,500 she was offered. She admired Sylvester Stallone and the story he created. "He calls himself an intellectual caveman," she said. "I think he sort of fancies himself as Stanley Kowalski, but, oh boy, is he a creative, sympathetic person."

 
"Prior to shooting the fight between Sylvester Stallone and Carl Weathers, director John G. Avildsen decided that the scenes needed to be shot in a unique way so as to make the boxing more realistic than in other boxing movies of the period. He, Weathers and Stallone all went to a ring and began to block out the moves, but it wasn't working, and the fight was coming across as staged and not very energetic. After stuntmen/fight choreographers Paul Stader and George P. Wilbur resigned due to creative disagreements, Avildsen then told Stallone to go home and literally write out the fight; 'Rocky throws a left, Creed moves back, Creed goes right, Rocky goes right Creed jabs low etc'. The next day, Stallone returned with 32 pages of specific directions for the fight, which he and Weathers learned off like a ballet over a period of a few weeks. In total, Stallone and Weathers rehearsed for over 35 hours."

 
After producers Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff became interested in the script, they offered writer Sylvester Stallone an unprecedented $350,000 for the rights, but he refused to sell unless they agreed to allow him to star in the film (this despite the fact that he had only $106 in the bank, no car and was trying to sell his dog because he couldn't afford to feed it). They agreed, but only on the condition that Stallone continue to work as a writer without a fee and that he work as an actor for scale. After Winkler and Chartoff purchased the film, they took it to United Artists, who envisioned a budget of $2 million, but that was on the basis of using an established star (they particularly wanted Robert Redford, Ryan O'Neal, Burt Reynolds or James Caan). United Artists didn't want Stallone to star, and when Winkler and Chartoff told them that the only way they could get him to sell the screenplay was to agree to cast him, United Artists cut the budget to $1 million, and had Chartoff and Winkler sign agreements that if the film went over budget, they would be personally liable. The final cost of the film was $1.1 million. The $0.1 million came after Chartoff and Winkler mortgaged their homes so as to complete the project.