With six features spread out over 30 years, Sylvester Stallone's Rocky Balboa has had plenty of time in the spotlight, so while the franchise is ready to expand once more, it won't be doing so with the Italian Stallion as its lead. Instead, a new spinoff is in the works and will be titled Creed, with starring duties falling to the young, talented Michael B. Jordan. We've been hearing about this project for a while now, but apparently gears have started to turn and the production is expected to be up on its feet very soon.
This new update comes to us directly from Sylvester Stallone himself, who posted a few messages about Creed on his personal Twitter account this afternoon. Laying out a few of his big plans in the coming months, the Rambo star revealed that he'll be watching some boxing, hanging out with Arnold Schwarzenegger, and filming Creed at the beginning of next year:
Perhaps understanding that most people in his Twitter feed would have no idea what Creed is, Stallone followed up his first message with a limited synopsis about what we can expect the new film to be about:
While he doesn't explicitly say it, it's been reported that Rocky Balboa will be stepping out of the ring for Creed and will be working with Apollo's progeny as a boxing coach. Ryan Coogler, who earned a great deal of acclaim for his Michael B. Jordan-starring feature directorial debut Fruitvale Station, is directing the new boxing film and co-wrote the script with newcomer Aaron Covington. MGM is on-board to produce, and while we expect that the film probably won't be a blockbuster-sized production that takes half the year, it's a fair bet that we won't be seeing the finished product until 2016. Why? Because that year will mark the 40th anniversary of the original Rocky, and Hollywood loves big round numbers.
If production is starting up in January, that means that Creed will likely be spending the next couple of weeks looking to fill out its cast beyond just Michael B. Jordan and Sylvester Stallone. Keep tuned in for more updates as they become available.
