Rocky franchise star Sylvester Stallone tears into executive producer Irwin Winkler following news of the Drago spinoff film starring Dolph Lundgren.


In a post shared on Instagram, Stallone slammed the upcoming spinoff film Drago, which will follow Ivan Vasilyevich Drago, a rival of Rocky who first appeared in 1985's Rocky IV, and his son Viktor Drago. Drago will star Dolph Lundgren as Ivan and Florian Munteanu as Viktor. In particular, Stallone expressed significant displeasure with the film's producer Irwin Winkler, who also served as a producer on both the Rocky and Creed franchises, with whom Stallone has an ongoing feud.

In the Instagram post, he doesn’t name Winkler but says a 94-year-old producer and his children are "once again picking what is left OFF THE BONES of another wonderful character."

He added: "I am sorry to the FANS, I APOLOGIZE to the FANS I never wanted ROCKY to be exploited FOR THIS GREED .. # no shame #sad day #Parasite."

Stallone wrote and starred in 1976’s “Rocky,” with Winkler – the film’s producer – filling a key role as he helped convince United Artists to make the project with a screenplay by the film’s relatively untested star. Despite creating the franchise, Stallone has no ownership of the series.

The creation of Rocky, its success at the box office and its success at the 1976 Oscars has entered film folklore but the rights to the franchise have long been a point of contention for Stallone, who was paid approximately $75k (for the screenplay and his acting fees) plus 10 net points which earned him at least $2.5 million for the first film.

The Rocky franchise expanded with 2015’s Creed and its sequel two years later. A third installment is set to be released on November 23, the first Rocky project that Stallone will not appear in. He will serve as a producer, however. Irwin also owns the rights to Creed as it’s an extension of the Rocky universe.

Source: Press Release