Sylvester Stallone delivered a masterpiece when he wrote and starred in the 1976 boxing movie Rocky, which won an Oscar for best film that year. Since then, Rocky has become a long-running film series, which has also spawned a couple of games. But despite the series' popularity, the vast majority of the money has gone not to Stallone, but to the series' producer Erwin Winkler, who owns the rights.
This has put Stallone in hot water on several occasions, and he recently published an Instagram post (which was later deleted) in which he gave the ageing producer a good scolding:
"After IRWIN controlling ROCKY for over 47 years, and now CREED, I really would like to have at least a little WHAT'S LEFT of my RIGHTS back, before passing it on to ONLY YOUR CHILDREN - I believe That would be a FAIR gesture from this 93 year old gentleman."
The Rocky franchise got a reboot with the 2015 film Creed and its 2018 sequel Creed II. Creed III, scheduled for release in November, will be the first Rocky film without Stallone in the cast.
Thanks, Deadline.