Hey folks Harry here with an update about CHAMPS (that was not sent in by AB KING!!!), that Renny fella's directing of Stallone in a slightly more horizontal film than CLIFFHANGER. Now, just as cool as the report is the reporter... ol I Wish It Were Cool News, this month is the 3 year anniversary of this, the premiere parody site of AICN... Man... it's hard to believe I've been doing this long enough that the parody site has a 3 year anniversary... amazing. Here's the news...
Harry,
IWIWCN here and I got an update on Sly Stallone's "CHAMPS". Sly was at the Target Grand Prix in Chicago this weekend shooting scenes with Burt Reynolds, up and down pit road. The rumor that Burt's character, the team owner, being in a wheelchair are true. Current CART driver Christian Fittipaldi was scheduled to play himself this weekend as the winner of the fictional race, but had to drop out due to a nasty crash on Friday during practice for the real race.
Sly also did a 15 minute interview on ESPN2's "RPM Tonight" where he clarified the following details. The movie will be called "CHAMPS", he went so far as to joke that he wish the series would change the name to match the movie title. The release date will be sometime next May.
He also said that he is taking great pains to make this a movie about the lives of the drivers, not just a flick full of racing eyecandy. He sounded sincere in trying to make this a very similar to the original ROCKY, where the sport was important, but only served as the backdrop to the character's lives. He discussed how most people who went to see ROCKY did not know much about the sport, but came away with a better appreciation of the everyone involved. He wants to do the same for racing. Sly added that they will be using the latest technology to really show the audience what it is like from the drivers perspective at 240 miles per hour. He stated that the television in-car cameras do not do this justice.
He did reveal a couple of surprises. He has learned to drive the Champ cars and maxes out at about 185 miles per hour (I wonder what kind of insurance the studio has for the film?!). Also, the nature of his character is different than it appeared until now. What reports I have read previously made his character out to be a once great champion who is brought out of retirement to mentor a hot shot young driver, you know the same tired story we have seen a million times before. That's pretty accurate except for the fact that Sly's character is a total loser, who is brought in to show the kid what NOT to do. His character is a total screw-up and has never been successful at anything (Do I smell a sudden awakening of talent, competing with the kid for the Championship?). He also competes with the kid for the same woman. (In a personal note, his character should let the kid have the super model and instead try to patch it up with his ex, played by Gina Girshon. GRRRRRR!!!!)
The interviewer finished up by saying that he read on several internet sites that Sly was considering doing ROCKY 6. Sly got very evasive. He said that he was considering it about 2 years ago, but figured that no one would buy it. Since then he has witnessed the resurgence of George Foreman and Larry Holmes (snicker), not to mention Harrison Ford committing to do Indy 4. He didn't say "yes" or "no", but it sounded like if the right opportunity were to come along, he would conquered it.
Yeah, yeah, CHAMPS is the only flick that I am ever able to provide real news on. *LAUGH* Maybe it is because I spend all of my time watching auto racing.
Later,
Mike Horaney
Chief Procreator, I Wish It Was Cool News
