Round #17 - Stallone is firing these back even quicker!!!

Hey folks, Harry here... about to do some Christmas shopping and attend Emily Hagins' PATHOGEN - when lo and behold... The Answers came in. This is great - I was going to have to be gone all day long, and now I don't have to worry about these getting up in my absence! YEA!!!! The Woody Allen story is fucking classic!!! Read on...

1. Hey AICN, Could you please aks Sly is there was any truth the the rumor that he sent his Poe script to Kubrick? Sincerey, Sean.K

Let the truth be known, I sent the POE script to Kubrick, Bob Fosse, Billy Friedkin, Roman Polanski and everyone else who was a giant at the time. Some feedback was positive, but not much happened after that, so I continued to whittle away at the project, trying to find a delineation between providing a visually interesting story (i.e., his surreal stories being projected on screen) while maintaining a navigation through his well-documented life. I don’t have any plans to be in it, but I would love to find a great talent to play Poe, because I think it will be a fantastic tour de force for a young actor.

2. Hello, Since no one else has asked this - I noticed that you have worked with Woody Allen, actually twice, first in his early film called 'Bananas' and then as a voice actor in 'Antz'. How it was like to work with him? Any stories about working on those two movies? All the best, Miha Helsinki Finland

Yes, Woody Allen was almost pathologically shy. He has a very mercurial mind, but he’s caught between two realities. One reality is he likes to create stories about people. The second reality is he’s uncomfortable around people. So when I went to audition as a glorified extra, they presented me to him and said, “Would Sylvester and this other fella, Tony, be suitable as muggers?” He whispered something in the casting director’s ear and sauntered off. I asked, “Well?” “He said you weren’t intimidating enough.” That was a revelation. Not scary enough to intimidate Woody Allen? Interesting. So I was ready to fold up my tent and go home, and this fella Tony said, “Hey, let’s not quit.” So, we proceeded upstairs and went into the nearest pharmacy, bought a small jar of Vaseline, greased back our hair and applied a good helping of subway soot as we proceeded back down the stairs, searching for Woody. We saw him in the distance, and approaching his flank, stood behind him and announced, “Hey! You intimidated now?!” He didn’t verbally respond, but nodded to the casting director and we got the job. I learned a lot that day about not giving up. If the key doesn’t open the door, try the window.

3. Hello Mr. Stallone, Before I ask you a question I just wanted to thank you for all the years of inspiration, motivation and great entertainment. You are definitely my favorite actor. My question concerns Rocky. I have 3 pocket books I bought in the mid-80s on the first 3 Rocky movies that are based on your screen plays. The first one is written by Julia Sorel, the second one by you and the third by Robert E. Hoban. Why did you only write the Rocky 2 book and let two other authors write the others? I don't know who these authors are but, to be quite honest with you I thought you did just as good a job, if not better, the these other two. Have you ever considered writing more books? Maybe a series of books based on a similiar character. In the first one the boxer's name in the club was Spider Rice instead of Rico. Did'nt sound as tough. I hope Rocky Balboa is a big hit. You deserve it. Thankyou, Dan B. Regina, Sk., Canada

I won’t spend a lot of time on this ‘cause I really don’t have any interesting anecdotes, except I was new to the business and they suggested I have someone professional do it. On ROCKY II, I wanted to experiment and thought it would be interesting writing in the first person, and it was. In ROCKY III, I have no excuse, other than I dropped the ball and didn’t think I could provide any more insight into the character, which is a cop-out, which is a lame excuse for laziness. I regret the decision.

4. Dear Mr. Stallone: I have been reading all of your questions and answers, since Round 1 at aintitcool.com. You are very well read. My question is this when you were making "Over The Top," did you learn a certain manuver to do to an opponent, to have an unfair advantage. I am a Chiropractor and a fellow Chiropractor, who teaches seminars on Adjusting Extremities, told us he had armwrestled many of those guys in "Over The Top." He also, said he knew of a way to throw his opponents forearm out of alignment, to have an unfair advantage. He did not elaborate on this. I haven't asked, since then. Do you know of anyway to give oneself an unfair advantage, with the forearm, during armwrestling? Sincerely, Christian Hiers 35 years old of Atlanta, Ga

I guess the only advantage I can recall is dropping your weight away from your opponent, thus extending his arms further from his body, which leaves him at a huge disadvantage. I actually saw one of the competitors have his forearm snapped right in front of my eyes by using this maneuver. But the craziest maneuver I ever saw was… this character, who in a grand effort to psyche his opponent out, drank a half a can of 20W motor oil, then capped it off with the placement of a small canary in his putrid pie hole of a mouth and proceeded to munch down on the helpless creature… yikes. I had a Tweety flashback for a moment – truthfully.

5. Hi, Sly, What can you tell about your work with Menahem Golan and Cannon Group in the 80's? This controversial man is actually one of the Israeli Cinema founders and it would be nice to hear about your experience of working with him. How was the connection established? Thanks, Marat Tel Aviv, Israel

I loved Menahem, he was more of the creative part of the company, and Yoram was the financial wiz. I thought he was one of the first independent producers to actually make a run at doing more sophisticated films. They made a fortune on their “cloned” action films, which were done for, (what appeared to be) $12.75 each, but they turned a tidy profit. I liked the man; he was very nice to me. He once wanted to do a remake of INVESTIGATION OF A CITIZEN ABOVE SUSPICION with me, which is based on an old Italian classic.

6. Dear Sly, I've written and re-written my question a hundred times now. I don't really know what questions you wanted or whatever so I've just deemed that no matter how I write it, it will simply come out stupid and more than likely be buried under a pile of electronic crap never to be seen again.... So here goes: I have always personally identified with the Rocky character in the films to some degree and felt that he really has served as a metaphor for living and what comes with it. It now being 20 years after I first saw Rocky in a Philly theater with my father (who was also from Philly) and which resulted in me wanting to go chase chickens and become a professional boxer. Add to that that I got the storytelling of my life about my great-grandfather (Tommy Loughran the boxer) over a steaming chunk of Philly cheesesteak and you can imagine why it was pretty memorable, I find myself at the bad end of a good life gone wrong. I often look back and wonder what I would've told myself 20 years ago that would've changed the course of things if I had had that chance. So I'm curious: seeing as you've poured your heart and soul into this series, what would the Rocky Balboa of this latest installment have told the Rocky who first cried out "ADRIEN!!!!!!!!!!" on the silver screen if he were to call back in time today? Peace and keep on keeping on DSTLW

Without a doubt, the first message would have been, “To thine own self be true.” The only beat you ever really want to march to, is the beat of your own heart. As much as I am loathed to say it, you really have to be wary of the advice of people, even loved ones, because it can be tinged with jealousy. Believe it or not, I’ve often found that friends can evoke more jealousy about your successes than your most overt enemy. Quite often the best advice comes from what I would call, “The Adrian Component” - that one person in the background who has no agenda, who has no male competitiveness, who may have very little stature in other people’s eyes, but can see the playing field for what it is and be able to give you a true perspective and loving advice. Trust is the last of your belongings that should be given away haphazardly, because quite often the world’s biggest dilemma is that we trusted someone with our hearts, a person who was not worthy, and quite often the after-effects last a lifetime.

7. Harry, Thanks for the opportunity to ask Sly a question. Here is mine: Sly, You mentioned in another interview that it is more and more difficult for a man to express himself in each generation since World War II. What did you mean by this? It does seem like there are plenty of men who are lost in our increasingly feminized culture. What message are you trying to deliver to these men in Rocky Balboa? Thanks, Ed Rodriguez Chicago

Feminized culture. Feminized culture? Savor that statement, “feminized culture.” What that means to me is: the base premise that every man has to go through a rite of passage to feel he’s a man… it has been feminized, or deemphasized. Let me state the word “feminized” does not infer this is a conspiracy, or any other Machiavellian maneuver, proposed by women. It’s just that our intelligence is creating a society - and this only goes for western society – that is too friggin’ easy. Men require a moment of hardship early in their lives, some task that lifts their self-esteem, some physical encounter – that’s all falling by the wayside. Today a rough physical encounter is a man not getting his nails buffed on time or his highlights turned out a touch dull. Bring back the lions. Bring back the spears. Let the games begin.

8. Hey Harry, I need you this question to get picked, I have to make up for my retarded and unoriginal question of "Rocky vs Rambo" yesterday. Musta been the alcohol. My new question, and I hope it's not unoriginal, is what is the absolutely strangest thing a fan has done. In terms of stalking or just being flat out weird. Hell, why not just say whats the weirdest thing you've seen in the movie business? Justin Tillary

The strangest thing a fan has ever done was for thirty days they left death threats in my mailbox. For example, “In 29 days, you’re gonna die.” “In 28 days, you’re gonna die.” “In 27 days…,” etc. Try as I did, I couldn’t catch this cretin. Somehow this message would be left on the front of my property every morning. Finally it got down to the last day and a Rambo doll appeared with its head severed and painted blood cascading down its neck. Now I truly wanted a piece of this maniac. A neighbor happened to see someone driving away at 4AM and got the license number. I tracked this maniac down and went to their home, pounded on the door, and who answered? A cow of a woman with broken teeth and a Three Stooges bowl haircut who made her living… drum roll please… as a daycare center supervisor.

9. Word down the grapevine is Sony doesn't want to release a soundtrack album for "Rocky Balboa". Is there someone at Sony/MGM we can call or write to voice that we want Bill Conti's score for RB (and his criminally-ignored Rocky V score, for that matter?). There's this upcoming "Rocky Balboa: Best of" CD, but unless the tracks of "Going the Distance" and "Conquest" are his new compositions, it just isn't going to cut it. Thank you for doing this. We all appreciate it. Ted Johnson Oklahoma City, OK

I believe two albums are being cut. One that is the tried and true ROCKY music, and then the compilation album, which I am very excited about, because, OK, I’m going to say it, it still pumps me up like no other music, and I use it to get my lazy, deteriorating bones to the gym. Thanks again, have a good Sunday.

10. Danny – Yonkers, New York Here is my question: It seems that Rocky’s intelligence level and vocabulary grows as the movies progress and I was wondering if this was done on purpose to show that he’s becoming more cultured or if this was just the result of you yourself growing as a screen writer.

A little bit of both. It’s hard to separate myself from the character, but all of us cannot avoid the influence of experience, and with that would come volumes of street wisdom. In the new film, Rocky is able to articulate his feelings - not anymore profoundly than in the other films - because the character never had a problem with spilling his guts. But rather, the subject matter is more universal and poignant than issues that would just deal with “the fight.” I love writing for the character; it’s been one of my greatest joys, and I’m not ashamed to say, I’ll miss writing about him terribly in the future.