Actor Sylvester Stallone Slams Producer Irwin Winkler Over 'Rocky' Franchise Ownership Dispute

Actor Sylvester Stallone has slammed producer Irwin Winkler for allegedly denying him the rights to his popular film franchise Rocky and its sequel series 'Creed' for almost five decades now.?

The veteran Hollywood action star has once again expressed his frustrations over the lack of ownership of the popular film franchises he has helped create. Stallone took to his Instagram account on Sunday and shared a photo of Irwin Winkler morphed as a knife-tongued snake.?

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“A very flattering portrait of the great ‘Rocky’/’Creed’ producer, Irwin Winkler, from one of the country’s greatest. After Irwin controlling ‘Rocky’ for over 47 years, and now ‘Creed’, I really would like to have at least a little (of) 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?” the 76-year-old actor wrote alongside the image.?

Stallone also took a swipe at Irwin Winkler's son David Winkler for his recently published memoir titled - The Arrangement: A Love Story through his post. The actor said that the book is “by far the worst” he had read.?

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Stallone expressed that the “unbearable worthless dreck was written by the painfully untalented David Winkler,” and went on to call out David’s father, Irwin Winkler, saying he was “the remarkably untalented and parasitical Producer of Rocky and Creed.” However, the controversial post is no longer available on Instagram as it seems to have been removed from the social media platform.?

Rocky, which is the first film in the franchise that has created six movies in total, starred Stallone, who conceived and also wrote it. The actor even went on to bag Oscar nominations for the best actor for his title role as Rocky Balboa and and earned a nomination for writing the original screenplay for the 1976 boxing drama.?

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Rocky won three Oscars, including best picture and best director for John G. Avildsen at the 49th Academy Awards.Meanwhile, Stallone is producing all of the Creed films, including the upcoming movie Creed III, in collaboration with Irwin, David and Charles Winkler, among others.?

Michael B. Jordan will play the son of the late Apollo Creed in the Creed franchise. The part was earlier portrayed in the Rocky films by Carl Weathers.?

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