Avildsen was invited to direct, based on his history with gritty slice of life movies, and his knack for working with low budgets. But the stubborn writer held out until United Artists bought the script and agreed he could play the lead. The studios bidding were excited, seeing James Caan or Ryan O’Neal in the film. The bidding went to fifty thousand dollars and still he refused. Everyone wanted the script, but no one wanted him, and he was not about to sell unless he could play the lead. Werner fight, when a virtually unknown boxer went fifteen rounds with the champion, Muhammad Ali. In three days he hammered out a screenplay and with nothing to lose started shopping it around. The idea came to him watching the Ali vs. 'We are very excited to support this theatrical project.He was broke, he could not get work, his wife was pregnant, he was desperate, and he was scared. 'Seeing Sylvester Stallone in Rocky when we were kids actually was the reason for us to start boxing in the first place, he said. The brothers, whose own story has been committed to film, told how they had been fans of the film as children. Stallone, whose career was launched by Rocky, and who has previously sung in films such as Rhinestone, is unlikely to be cast himself. Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko will co-produce the musical along with Stallone and train the lead actor, who has not yet been cast. Gonna Fly Now, the main theme tune, was written by Bill Conti, who composed the bulk of the soundtrack, and made the No 1 spot on the US Billboard list for one week in 1977. Numbers which will move from the film to the stage version include Eye of the Tiger and Gonna Fly Now, although it's not clear whether they will be translated into German, the language in which the musical has been written. To see this story coming to life on a musical stage makes me proud. 'At the end of the day, Rocky is a love story and he could never have reached the final bell without Adrian. Stallone said he had long thought that a musical transfer for the 1976 Oscar-winning drama was a good idea, in particular if its romantic side was amped up.

Two Ukranian boxing brothers have teamed up with Sylvester Stallone to stage a musical version of Rocky in Hamburg, Germany.

Rocky debut 1976