Sylvester Stallone Teases Work on Rocky 4 Director’s Cut With New Clips
Sylvester Stallone is now teasing work on the Rocky IV director’s cut by providing brand new clips. Rocky is the franchise that not only launched Stallone to Hollywood stardom but, on more than one occasion, has seemingly revitalized his career as well. One of the more memorable installments of the franchise was Rocky IV, as it was perhaps the most visually impressive one, and it featured the iconic Russian villain Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren), who went on to kill Rocky’s rival turned-friend, Apollo Creed. Rocky IV was also the catalyst for 2018’s Creed 2, which featured the sons of Apollo and Ivan doing battle, with Rocky in Adonis’ corner and Ivan in his son’s corner.
More recently, Stallone has seemingly been on a trend of tinkering past films, as Rambo: Last Blood’s extended cut hit streaming services like Amazon Prime, and later Apple TV. Last month, he announced on his Instagram that he is working on a Rocky IV director’s cut, and he promised it would be “amazing.” The action star has often revealed things on his social media, but not everything has actually materialized. However, it looks like the Rocky IV director’s cut is really happening, as Stallone is now uploading new videos to tease the project.
Stallone recently put up a video of Rocky IV's press conference scene on his Instagram, writing that since he’s “tinkering around these are some outtakes from Rocky 4 between me and Drago.” The video shows when Rocky and Drago are sat side by side in the scene where Rocky announces their fight will take place in Russia, but in the uploaded video, we hear Lundgren utter his famous dialogue, “I cannot be defeated” after being directed by Stallone. In the film, this scene has Drago remaining silent throughout, and in another video uploaded shortly after this one, the Rocky star is in an editing room asking the question why they never used Drago’s line for the final cut of the film. Full Instagram posts can be seen below:
It’s interesting to see these small moments that never made the final cut and to see Stallone himself questioning why this line did not make his film over thirty years later. One of the most effective attributes of Drago’s character was that he was almost a silent killer, rarely speaking, and when he did speak, it was impactful, which is evident by the character being quoted for years after the film’s release. It would certainly be interesting to see the scene as a whole with this included to see how effective it is, and it looks like we might get to, as these videos seemingly prove the Rocky IV director’s cut is on its way.
It’s clear that Stallone can never stay too distant from Rocky because only a few months after saying a final farewell to the character, the actor revealed he had another idea for a Rocky movie where Balboa finds someone who has entered the country illegally. Time will tell whether this idea comes to fruition, but regardless of if another Rocky film is made, a Rocky IV director’s cut will likely leave many diehard fans excited.
Source: Sylvester Stallone