Reports having been spreading across the web that Syvelster Stallone has been talking up plans for Rocky VII. He was apparently talking to Gemany’s Tele5, with sites like Teen:Say quoting him as saying, “I know I’ll probably make a fool of myself if I make another Rocky film after turning 60. I also know there’s gonna be a lot of criticism. Even my wife says, ‘Don’t do it. You’re embarrassing the kids’. But I told her, ‘If I don’t try I’ll be a really unhappy man.’ You have to do it. Artists like me have to go through the dark over and over again.”
At least he seems prepared for the inevitable criticism, adding, “I know it’s ludicrous and everyone would laugh. I would laugh about it. But I also know that I’d be successful if I can make this a film about becoming older, not about boxing but about myself.” However as Rocky Balboa was surprisingly good, I reckon he’d find more people prepared to support his plans to get back in the ring that he seems to suspect.
Presumably he’s planning to make the movie after Rambo V: The Savage Hunt, which is taking the franchise is a slightly sci-fi direction with the Vietnam veteran brought in to tackle an escaped super-soldier, who’s an amalgamation of fury and intelligence and pure unadulterated rage. That movie already has the greenlight to start shooting next spring, with Rocky VII presumably coming afterwards.