	Rocky's Sixth Round

"Rocky's Sixth Round"
by Liz Smith for New York Newsday.com
July 28, 2003

'What nature requires is obtainable, and within easy reach. It's for the superfluous we sweat," said Roman playwright Seneca.

SYLVESTER STALLONE, sitting in dark pants and a gray polo shirt in the lobby lounge of the Four Seasons hotel, looks as if he never breaks a sweat. But judging from his beautifully tanned biceps and deltoids and his flat abs - I'm sure he does. He still works out and takes care of himself. I have known this guy since he hit the heights with "Rocky," his creation, his inspiration, his super-hit. Stallone looks better today at 57 than he did back in the beginning of what many thought was just an impossible dream.

Sly is in town promoting his role as a villain in "Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over." I asked how much of a villain? He laughed, "I'm the one you want to live next door. I'm the kind who keeps learning his lesson, like Wile E. Coyote. I'm an evil genius who creates a kind of cyberspace game that steals the minds of children. We're like we're in a computer game. And the kids are just great; real pros! I loved working with them."

I ASKED my longtime friend Sly to talk a bit about what it's like to have created the iconic "Rocky," and how he has adjusted to the ups and downs of fame. He said, "Well, I have a great family life, a wonderful wife [Jennifer Flavin] who gets smarter every day, and my three daughters, 2, 5 and 6. You know, the Quran says a man with three little girls goes directly to heaven when he dies, as he will already have endured in life enough worry and paranoia. But it has dawned on me that your life works from your roots. My family has saved my sanity.

"It took me a while to realize that 'Rocky' wasn't just a performance. It had great meaning; the character became indelible. I don't want to sound pretentious, but I did once rebel against the 'Rocky' idea. Now I know it's normal to want to run the full spectrum, the rainbow of all your colors. 'Rocky' is a philosophy, so let's make the sixth one, which I've already written. 'Rocky' still needs to be in the game, like my hero, George Foreman, who went from real-life 'villain' to fabled hero in only 50 years or so. He'll be in the next 'Rocky' movie!

"I call this script 'Puncher's Chance,' because it's what every fighter has. A fighter may lose his abilities, but even old fighters retain their punch. It's the last thing they lose. And if they use it right, they can get lucky. Foreman, you know, is going to fight again professionally. And look at a great athlete like Lance Armstrong. These guys just keep moving forward."

MEANWHILE, Stallone is moving forward with another story he wrote, "Thug'z Life," about the real-life deaths of rappers Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G., and the corruption in the L.A. Police Department. Sly will direct, produce and appear as Det. Russell Poole, who believed there was something rotten going on and was removed from the force as a result. "We are just waiting for the Errors & Omissions insurance; it's a normal thing, to keep us from being sued," Sly said. "I think this can be a great film. It will offer a conspiracy theory, present the evidence and let the audience draw its own conclusions."

"YOU KNOW, sometimes, I think there's not a lot I can do in this industry," Sly continued. "I have begun fantasizing about getting into the anti-aging game with nutritionals. I have been talking to experts, and I'd like to do something like what Paul Newman did with his food line. A situation where you can do something useful for society and give something back. So I have been examining that."

Stallone is a forceful guy, who also has high hopes that, eventually, he will make his movie on the life of Edgar Allan Poe. It is written, it is ready, and Sly continues to seek the actor to play it and the financing to make it. "It will win an Oscar for somebody!" he says with certainty.

At the end of our talk, I asked Sly how his controversial mom, Jackie, is doing? He smiled. "Everybody wants to keep on keeping on, to be famous, to do their thing. She does hers!" Well, she did one thing very well; she produced the phenomenon that is Sylvester Stallone. Sly knows the reality and says "Youth must be served ... but the rest of us go on as well. We have our choices, our ambitions, and we have that last important thing - the 'Puncher's Chance!'"

- Craig Zablo