Recent events have seen creators like Sylvester Stallone making some pretty big plans. Not only has the Rocky star teased a sequel to the cult ‘90s classic Demolition Man, he’s apparently been making some moves on even older films on his filmmography. More specifically, he’s getting ready to turn in an alternate cut of arguably the most beloved films in the Rocky series: Rocky IV. This particular fact was revealed during the discussion of another Stallone film that’s been made available in an alternate form.
With an “extended cut” of last year’s action spectacle Rambo: Last Blood being available on Amazon for rental or purchase, another alternate cut became the subject of debate. Commenting on Sylvester Stallone's Instagram page, a fan asked whether or not the director’s cut of Rocky Balboa will be available, the actor was more than happy to comment with a revelation about another project on which he's working:
I am not doing that but I am doing a director’s cut on Rocky IV which will be amazing!!!!!
So if you’re one of those Stallone fans who has been hoping that a new cut of the venerated Rocky IV would be headed your way some day, you’re probably going ready to run up and down your nearest set of stairs in victory right about now – which would be totally fair because the prospect of adding in some of the moments that were removed from the 1985 classic is something that clearly has Sylvester Stallone as fired up as his fans.
As to what would be included in that new director’s cut of Rocky IV, that is something that’s more mysterious. Based on what we know about material that wasn't included in the theatrical cut of the movie, one extra inclusion in the cut could be a scene where Balboa is warned by a panel of boxing officials that his fight against Dolph Lundgren's Ivan Drago to avenge the death of Carl Weather’s Apollo Creed is an unsanctioned match. But besides that particular deletion, as well as a deleted monologue from the Russian boxer, there’s not a lot of other extra footage available that is known to the public.
That doesn’t make this Sylvester Stallone fueled enterprise any less exciting, as he more than likely is sitting on a treasure trove of footage from the film that he wrote, directed, and starred in so long ago. He’s proven he still knows his classics inside and out, as his sharing of an outtake from Rambo: First Blood shows that the archives are fresh in his mind. And with the recent Creed II drawing the legacy of Rocky Balboa, Apollo Creed, and Ivan Drago into a more modern context, a new cut of Rocky IV could feed off of the storyline from the recent success of that film and make this historic rivalry all the more thrilling and emotional.
While we don’t know when or what form this Rocky IV Director’s Cut will appear in, we do know that Rambo: Last Blood is currently available on Prime Video; both in its theatrical and extended versions.
