Sylvester Stallone has confirmed he's in talks with Amazon to recut "Rocky V," the 1990 entry that even the most hardcore Rocky fans tend to pretend doesn't exist. Speaking to SiriusXM, Sly didn't bury the lede.
"This is news. I've been talking to Amazon. I said, 'Please give me three weeks. I want to recut that movie,'" Stallone said.
He added that he's "100%" confident he can improve it, including by reworking the score and bringing back more of Bill Conti's music, which was pushed aside in the original cut for a more of-its-moment soundtrack. As for why he's still fixated on it 36 years later?
"It's like a thorn in my soul," he said.
This isn't coming out of nowhere. Stallone already did this with "Rocky IV," re-editing it into "Rocky IV: Rocky vs. Drago – The Ultimate Director's Cut" in 2021, swapping in unused footage and reshaping the film's tone. With Amazon now owning MGM, and by extension the Rocky library, Sly sees another opportunity.
The difference is that "Rocky IV" was a crowd-pleaser that just needed tinkering. "Rocky V" is… more problematic. Reuniting with original director John G. Avildsen was supposed to bring the series back to its gritty roots, but the result, with Rocky broke, brain-damaged, and training a protégé who turns on him, was a terrible film. It's long been seen as the franchise's low point, and Stallone himself has openly admitted it didn't work. He's also said the original plan was for Rocky to die at the end, which the studio nixed.
I'm not sure a new edit can turn "Rocky V" into a good movie, but there is apparently around an hour hiur of deleted footage. Switching up the score could help with the tone, but the street fight finale is the street fight finale. No amount of trimming changes what that is.
Still, you kind of have to admire it. Most filmmakers make peace with their misfires. Stallone, at 80, is asking for three weeks to go back and change that misfire's legacy. Good luck with that.
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