Fruitvale Station director Ryan Coogler and star Michael B. Jordan are getting set to work together again, this time on Creed, a spinoff of Sylvester Stallone’s classic Rocky series that will feature the grandson of the cinematic boxer’s greatest opponents turned friend. MGM has already set Coogler, who brought the idea to the studio, to head up the project and is currently in negotiations with Jordan to star.
And yes, Sylvester Stallone is already set to bring his Rocky character out of retirement to reluctantly train the grandson of his friend.
Deadline describes the story that Coogler created thusly –
Raised in an upper crust home thanks to the ring riches earned by his grandfather, [Jordan’s unnamed character] doesn’t have to box and his family doesn’t want him to. Yet, he has the natural instinct and gifts and potential that made his grandfather the heavyweight champion until Rocky Balboa took his crown in 1979′s Rocky II. Creed’s grandson needs a mentor and turns to Balboa, who is out of boxing completely and not eager to return.
I have to admit that there is something appealing about the generational aspect of the proposed story. Especially the part that places Rocky into a mentorship/father figure role similar to the one that Burgess Meredith’s Mickey was in the first two Rocky films back in the 1970s. It makes a nice coda to the character whom I already think they gave a good ending for in 2006’s Rocky Balboa. I would also assume that there is some drama to be wrung from any potentially lingering guilt that Rocky may steel feel over not stopping the fight that took Apollo’s life in 1985′s Rocky IV.
Stallone is currently also currently overseeing an attempt to turn the original 1976 Rocky into a Broadway musical.
