- Sylvester Stallone slammed a new "Rocky" spinoff centered around antagonist Ivan Drago.
- Stallone claimed that producer Irwin Winkler and his children are exploiting the franchise.
Sylvester Stallone has slammed the producers of the "Rocky" franchise after a new spinoff movie was announced starring his former costar Dolph Lundgren.
Stallone is currently fighting for the rights to the famous character Rocky Balboa, which he portrayed in all six "Rocky" films and the two recent "Creed" spinoff movies.
After it was reported that there may be another spinoff involving Lundgren, who played antagonist Ivan Drago in both "Rocky IV" and "Creed 2," Stallone took to Instagram on Sunday to slam "Rocky" producer Irwin Winkler and his former costar.
"Another Heartbreaker… Just found this out…ONCE AGAIN, IRWIN WINKLER, this PATHETIC 94 year old PRODUCER and HIS MORONIC VULTURE CHILDREN, Charles And David, are once again picking clean THE BONES of another wonderful character I created without even telling me," Stallone captioned one post. "I APOLOGIZE to the FANS, I never wanted ROCKY characters to be exploited by these parasites."
The "Rambo" actor added of his longtime friend, Lundgren: "By the way, I once had nothing but respect for Dolph but he NEVER told me about what was going on behind my back with the character I created for him !!! REAL FRIENDS Are more precious than gold."
He added in another post: "Throughout history so many artists in every industry, recording, painting writing, you name it have been destroyed by these blood suckers Who have destroyed so many families, lining their pockets with other people work.. #parasite producers #exploited artists victims."
In 2019, Stallone told Variety that he was "furious" when he found out he had "zero ownership" of the "Rocky" franchise, as he hoped to leave an equity stake for his children after his death.
"Every word, every syllable, every grammatical error was all my fault," he said. "It was shocking that it never came to be, but I was told, 'Hey, you got paid, so what are you complaining about?'"
Stallone also shared another post about Winkler last month, which has since been deleted.
Stallone captioned an image of Winkler's head Photoshopped onto a snake: "ALSO after IRWIN controlling ROCKY for over 47 years , and now CREED, , I really would like have at least a little WHAT's LEFT of my RIGHTS back, before passing it on to ONLY YOUR CHILDREN - I believe That would be a FAIR gesture from this 93 year old gentleman ?"
Another "Creed" sequel is currently in post-production but Stallone will not be involved.
Insider has reached out to representatives for Winkler and Lundgren for comment.