The World Ain't All Sunshine And Rainbows.

One of the most inspirational movies of our generation is "Rocky". It's the story of a boxer who came from nothing and almost became the heavyweight champion of the world. It is inspiring to note that the story was written by Sylvester Stallone out of frustration when he failed to land good acting jobs. Prior to his role as Rocky Balboa, his only other leading role had been in a low budget film called "The Lords Of Flatbush" which was a bust at the box office.

Stallone(Sly) had been failing to find suitable parts as an actor so he opted to try his hand at screen writing. It is believed he wrote the script for Rocky in three and a half days and agreed to sell it to producers Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff only if they would allow him to play the leading role. The producers were very reluctant to make that agreement as they wanted Burt Reynolds, James Caan or Ryan O'Neal to play the role. Although Stallone was broke, he was not prepared to accept their offer unless he played the leading role.

The movie was made in approximately twenty eight days on a tiny budget of $1 million. Part of the agreement was for Stallone to be paid ten percent of the film's earnings. The film was made in the mid seventies and grossed approximately $225 million worldwide.

Stallone had been partly influenced by his mother who was an amateur astrologer and told him that his first success would be as a writer. Sources claim that the story was about the journeyman fighter Chuck Wepner who went fifteen rounds with Muhammad Ali. Stallone had watched the fight in a movie theater after which he thought about the many people who had failed to achieve their life's ambitions and experienced broken dreams. He thought about it for about ten months before deciding to write the script. He wrote it in a notebook by hand after which his wife Sasha did the typing.

From the outset, Stallone decided he had to play the leading role. He was offered as much as $265,000 for the script with someone else playing the lead but he refused to budge even though he was broke. Throughout these negotiations, his wife stood by him. Although they had no money, she was even prepared to live out of a trailer in a swamp if necessary. Because of his tenacity, the producers relented. With this victory, he went on to gain parts for his father, his brother and even his bull mastiff Butkus.

Sly trained for six hours per day over five months before they began filming. He had no formal boxing training previously so he would get up at dawn and run five miles on the beach, then shadow box in his apartment. He also trained at the gym by hitting the punching bag, doing push-ups and having a medicine ball thrown into his stomach.

There are numerous lessons that we can garner from Rocky. Despite Stallone's failures to land leading movie rolls, he did not give up. He "rolled with the punches" by using what he had. After watching that fight, he let his imagination run wild and today, the results are a part of movie history and Sylvester Stallone is now a household name.