I Play Rocky Is the London Film Festival's Surprise Film, With Stephan James as Carl Weathers
The London Film Festival's annual surprise film is one of the best-kept secrets on the fall calendar. This year it was I Play Rocky, Peter Farrelly's film about how Sylvester Stallone fought to write and star in the original Rocky. It screened Friday night at the Royal Festival Hall.
It's the latest stop on a busy festival run. I Play Rocky premiered at TIFF in September and opened the Hamptons International Film Festival this month, and it sits in the Building Momentum tier of our Best Picture tracking.
The story behind the underdog
Anthony Ippolito plays Stallone in the years before Rocky made him a star, when he was a struggling actor with a script nobody wanted to make with him attached. Peter Gamble wrote the screenplay.
The cast includes:
Anthony Ippolito as Sylvester Stallone
Stephan James as Carl Weathers, who played Apollo Creed
Matt Dillon as Stallone's father, Frank Stallone Sr.
AnnaSophia Robb as Stallone's wife, Sasha Czack
Jay Duplass as Rocky director John G. Avildsen
P.J. Byrne and Toby Kebbell as producers Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff
Stephan James as Carl Weathers
The casting we're watching most closely is Stephan James as Carl Weathers. Weathers, who died in 2024, turned Apollo Creed into one of the most iconic characters in sports movies, and the role launched a career that ran from Predator to The Mandalorian. James, the Canadian actor behind If Beale Street Could Talk and Homecoming, takes on the man who made Apollo unforgettable.
What critics are saying
Early reaction has been mixed to positive. Variety's Owen Gleiberman called it a "cleverly crafted crowd-pleaser," while Screen Daily's Robert Daniels was less convinced, calling it an "uninventive crowd pleaser." Either way, crowd-pleasing is the word that keeps coming up, and that's not a bad thing for a film heading into awards season.
When you can see it
Amazon MGM Studios opens I Play Rocky in select U.S. theaters on Nov. 6, then expands nationwide on Nov. 20, the day before the original Rocky's 50th anniversary. In the U.K. and Ireland, it opens Nov. 6.
Follow where it lands on the Cup of Soul Awards Tracker.
