Because Hollywood never met a dead franchise it couldn’t resuscitate, this year will see the arrival of a new Rocky spinoff, titled Creed. Warner Bros. just announced that it has set the pic for the already-crowded Thanksgiving weekend, where it will duke it out with Pixar’s The Good Dinosaur, Ridley Scott’s sci-fi The Martian, Mud director Jeff Nichols’ sci-fi Midnight Special, and an untitled Christmas comedy from 50/50 collaborators Seth Rogen and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
Michael B. Jordan (The Fantastic Four) stars as the grandson of Apollo Creed, that fearsome fighter with whom Sylvester Stallone’s beloved Rocky did battle in the original series. Stallone will co-star alongside Dear White People breakout Tessa Thompson, but the most exciting aspect of this otherwise dubious proposition is that it will reteam Jordan with his Fruitvale Station director Ryan Coogler (pictured above). Based on the merits of their last partnership, this may be one spinoff worth taking a chance on.
In other release date news, Warner Bros., incentivized by Paramount’s shuffling of Mission: Impossible 5 to summer, has shifted its Point Break remake from July 31st to December 25th, positioning the pic as the action movie event of the holiday season. If that gamble is to pay off, the Ericson Core-directed remake, which stars Edgar Ramirez and Luke Bracey and again centers on extreme sports aficionados who use their athleticism to pull off big heists, will have to fend off a quartet of serious box office opponents, including Will Smith’s NFL drama Concussion, animation/live-action mash-up Monster Trucks, David O. Russell-Jennifer Lawrence biopic Joy and Alvin and the Chipmunks 4.
Though it’s a little disheartening to add Creed and Point Break to the already-burgeoning list of remakes, sequels, spinoffs and prequels crowding the box office this year, counting either film out this early on would be a mistake. Creed certainly has a promising actor-director pair front and center, and the Point Break remake will perhaps finally be the film that propels Ramirez (who has been up-and-coming for a while now) to the A-list.
Creed enters the ring on November 25th, while Point Break will attempt to surf to box office glory on December 25th.
