You certainly can’t accuse Sylvester Stallone of slowing down as he gets older, with the multi-hyphenate star taking on a number of new projects, including a turn as the voice of King Shark in The Suicide Squad. However, the Rocky franchise is arguably the most personal for the actor, who’s been working on a Director’s Cut of Rocky IV. And now, Stallone has revealed that fans will get a bonus documentary as part of the alternative version of the 1985 hit.
Posting on Instagram, he shared an announcement video for the doc, titled Keep Punching: The Present Meets the Past, which will be included with the release of what’s been labelled as Rocky vs. Drago – The Ultimate Director’s Cut. In the clip, you can see the 74-year-old at work on editing the picture, whilst reflecting on the positive experience of doing so, and how he’s found a lot of things to do differently.
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We still don’t know exactly what’s been changed from the original Rocky IV, although Paulie’s robot is apparently (and sadly) not going to be around this time. Stallone has been sharing various hints over the last year or so, though, in particular a revised perspective on the Apollo Creed and Ivan Drago fight. It’s also not clear how much unused footage and outtakes are being added back into the finished product, so it’s likely that Rocky vs. Drago won’t be radically different than the existing movie.
At any rate, Stallone appears to be close to getting his fresh take on Rocky IV out to the public, most probably via a Blu-ray edition. Given that HBO Max now have the complete Rocky library, we could also be seeing the Director’s Cut on there as well. Moreover, there’ll be plenty more of the series for audiences to enjoy in the future, including Creed III and a prequel show, with Stallone continuing to maintain his prolific output.
