The young Sylvester Stallone in I Play Rocky is ‘uncanny’ – but is it too much?

A trailer has been released for Hollywood’s latest film about itself, I Play Rocky, which charts Sylvester Stallone’s quest to make it as an actor by writing his own film.

That movie was, of course, Rocky, which went on to bag ten Oscar nominations and win three awards, including best picture.

It was also the highest-grossing film of 1976 after Stallone rejected a six-figure pay day and eventually got the greenlight from United Artists to make and star in it with just a $1million (£741.7k) production budget.

Obviously, the most crucial ingredient in this behind-the-scenes dramatisation is an actor capable of both looking and sounding like Stallone – no mean feat when it comes to his signature deep, slurred voice or capturing that iconic snarling expression.

But luckily for Amazon MGM Studios, Anthony Ippolito exists. He’s a 26-year-old actor who already impressed as a young Al Pacino in 2022 mini-series The Offer, all about the making of another 1970s cinema classic, The Godfather.

And if I Play Rocky’s trailer is anything to suggest, Ippolito is fully locked in as Stallone too, rumbling at the top of the trailer: ‘Acting’s what I live and breathe for. And I gotta have faith in myself.’

But he’s slapped down, being told: ‘You don’t got the looks to be a movie star. Not to mention, you talk like you got rocks in your mouth.’

Which, respectfully, is just what you need.

‘Holy s**t, I’m freaked out. This looks like AI. The guy is IDENTICAL to young Stallone. The voice is the same, the way he talks. This nutjob is gonna win the Oscar,’ announced Rodolfo Gomes on X, while other fans were dubbing the likeness ‘uncanny’.

‘That is Stallone, you can’t tell me otherwise,’ insisted a YouTube user, while Stephen L Miller quipped on X: ‘This guy has Stallone so down that the sequel to this should be I Play Rambo.’

‘This guy’s going to be a star. What an incredible spot on impression of Sly Stallone. Got the voice down perfectly,’ another added – while others made the point that the line was slightly blurred between whether Ippolito was playing Stallone, now 80, or, in fact, the character Rocky.

As the movie’s trailer heavily leans into, there is a remarkable similarity in the underdog story between both the character and his creator, with Stallone shown parking cars and gutting fish while turning down a $200,000 (£148.3m) buy-out offer for Rocky – written in a three-day frenzy – from top execs.

While they throw about suggestions like Charles Bronson and Clint Eastwood for the role, he sticks to his guns and announces, ‘Guys, I play Rocky,’ only to be met with a bemused shrug and told: ‘I have no idea what that means.’

However, the movie does suggest this could be a schmaltzy watch, as can happen when Hollywood is busy mythologising itself.

A dramatic orchestral version of Rocky’s theme song Gonna Fly Now builds beneath the trailer, while a too-neat revelation of Sly’s real name (he’d been going by ‘Mike’) sees it compared to Peter Parker.

It revels in Stallone’s announcement that he isn’t giving up the screenplay he wrote, ‘not for a million bucks. Not for ten.’

Other dramatic, rather cliched pronouncements follow as the music swells.

‘This movie is about having a belief in yourself. It’s about going the distance. I put my heart and soul on the page. If I’m not willing to live up to what I wrote… then what’s the point?’ he later asks.

And obviously the trailer ends on a perfect re-enactment of Rocky’s air-punch on the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art because every ounce of juice has been squeezed from the original movie.

It all could be a bit too much, really.

‘In 10 years there will be an underdog movie about the underdog story of the struggle of making a movie about the making of the underdog story of Rocky Balboa,’ joked one fan on social media, while others panned the ‘making of’ trend.

‘Why is this a movie? Stallone is alive and we have Rocky footage? Have him tell his own story with footage intercut,’ suggested Frederick Goodman.

Rocky’s success – it took around $225m (£166.8m) at the box office – has birthed a further eight sequels and spin-off movies; 2023’s Creed III – the most recent film about the son of Rocky’s former rival, Apollo Creed, played by Michael B Jordan – was the first to not feature Stallone reprising his trademark role.

I Play Rocky also stars AnnaSophia Robb, Matt Dillon, Toby Kebbell and PJ Byrne, and is written and directed by Green Book and There’s Something About Mary filmmaker Peter Farrelly.

I Play Rocky will be released in UK cinemas on November 6, and in US cinemas on November 20.