Sylvester Stallone wrote “Rocky” in three days. Figuring out which category of Oscar screenplay the movie about him writing it falls into takes a lot more time.
Amazon MGM Studios’ “I Play Rocky” was the subject of multiple conversations between the studio, the Writers Guild of America, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the film’s creative team about whether Peter Gamble’s script would compete as an original or adapted screenplay. No decision has been made.
Thursday, November 12 is the latest deadline for studios to submit official screen credits (OSC) forms to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the 99th Academy Awards in the categories of Best Picture, Animated Feature, and General Admission. No films will then be taken into consideration.
Gamble conceived and wrote the screenplay as an original, and it is not based on a book, article, memoir, or other published work. He wrote it to spec and Bellevue Productions shared it with Christian Baha of Baha Films. Baha joined as a producer alongside Toby Emmerich, and director Peter Farrelly, who directed the Best Picture winner “Green Book” (2018), eventually signed on. This is the second feature film produced by Gamble after “Office Uprising” (2018).
But “Rocky” is one of the most established works of intellectual property in Hollywood, and sources say some within each organization question whether the script is better suited to adaptation, the category of scripts built on already established material. Rocky Balboa, Adrian and Apollo Creed are pre-existing characters and Farrelly’s film reprises some of the 1976 film’s best-known scenes, written half a century ago.
Amazon MGM and the Academy declined to comment.
“I Play Rocky” goes nationwide on Nov. 20, the same day that submissions close for the WGA, but the guild won’t weigh in. The film was not produced under a WGA signing agreement, so the guild cannot rank the script or consider it for the WGA Awards, even though Gamble is a member. That leaves the decision entirely to the executive committee of the Academy’s writers’ branch, which makes its own decisions and has already broken with the WGA.
Elsewhere on the circuit, the question will carry less weight. The Golden Globes place all screenplays in a single category, while the BAFTA and Critics Choice Awards, which divide the original and adapted, generally follow the category submitted by the studio.
According to the Academy’s Screenplay Submission FAQ for the 99th Academy Awards, films are not subject to a specific writing category. Instead, the Writers Branch’s executive committee reviews each eligible title and generally defers to the WGA’s classification, except when the guild has not rated a film, as is the case with “I Play Rocky” or its classification “has been called into question.” The guidelines go both ways for Gamble’s storyline.
A screenplay is generally considered adapted if it is based on a sequel, remake, existing film, or “pre-existing characters”, but it is considered original if it tells a true story in which the writer “conducted their own research and used multiple sources”. While a decision is under review, the committee may request a statement from the film’s credited screenwriters. Once it has ruled, the decision is final and no appeals or additional documents are accepted.
It seems like we have one every awards season.
In January 2024, Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” was moved to adaptation after Warner Bros. campaigned it as an original and the WGA also graded it. Barbie and Ken existed as Mattel dolls long before Gerwig and Noah Baumbach made them a billion-dollar sensation, and many cartoons existed featuring the characters. Ultimately, the screenplay earned an adapted nomination and lost to Cord Jefferson’s “American Fiction.”
Category inversions are not new. Barry Jenkins’ “Moonlight”, Damien Chazelle’s “Whiplash” and Joel and Ethan Coen’s “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs” all carried original WGA labels before the Academy transferred them for adaptation. The Academy has also long treated sequels as adaptations because their characters come from earlier films, which is how “Before Sunset,” “Toy Story 3,” “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Glass Onion” were all adapted.
This rule is being tested again this season. Aaron Sorkin’s “The Social Reckoning,” which dramatizes whistleblower Frances Haugen’s 2021 Facebook leak and Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Horwitz’s coverage of it, was initially marketed as a sequel to “The Social Network” (2010), which won Sorkin an Academy Award for adapted screenplay. The WGA has classified the new film as original. It is not yet clear whether the Academy committee will accept this designation.
(L-R) Stephan James as Carl Weathers and Anthony Ippolito as Sylvester Stallone in I PLAY ROCKY, from Amazon MGM Studios.
Claire Folger
This is the precedent that Gamble’s scenario must circumvent, and there is a powerful counterargument. “I Play Rocky” is not a sequel, prequel or spin-off. It’s a biographical drama about a real person, and biopics have regularly competed as originals. Dustin Lance Black won the original screenplay for “Milk,” even though Harvey Milk’s life had already been chronicled in the Oscar-winning documentary “The Times of Harvey Milk.” Anthony McCarten’s “Darkest Hour” also competed as an original, although it covers Winston Churchill’s first weeks as prime minister, a chapter that fills every high school history textbook.
Movies about making movies are interesting territory, and they’ve produced some originals as well. “Saving Mr. Banks,” about the making of “Mary Poppins,” competed as an original but did not land a nomination. Nor does Jason Reitman and Gil Kenan’s “Saturday Night,” which follows the 90 minutes leading up to the first televised episode of “Saturday Night Live.” Netflix’s “Mank,” written by the late Jack Fincher, father of director David Fincher, chronicles screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz’s work on Orson Welles’ “Citizen Kane” (1941). It was also considered an original, and it also missed the category, even though the film led the pack with 10 nominations.
When a making-of film is adapted, there is generally a book behind it. “The Disaster Artist” by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, for example, was based on the 2013 nonfiction book of the same name by Greg Sestero and Tom Bissell. The life of a public figure, however, is fair game, as illustrated in A24’s Chris Hansen story, “Primetime,” which Ajon Singh based on an article by Luke Dittrich.
Interestingly, Amazon MGM owns the “Rocky” franchise. The 1976 original earned 10 Academy Award nominations and Best Picture, and Stallone was nominated for Best Actor and Best Original Screenplay. Director Farrelly knows the original side all too well, having shared the Original Screenplay Oscar with Brian Hayes Currie and Nick Vallelonga for “Green Book,” another true story not based on any published sources.
Where the film lands could reshape its trajectory, and the two races stack up. In the original, Jesse Eisenberg (“The Debut”), Jordan Firstman (“Club Kid”), Mike Leigh (“Tender Loving Care”), Martin McDonagh (“Wild Horse Nine”) and Simon Rich (“Artificial”) are all in the conversation. A transition to adaptation would not unblock the road. That would pit Gamble against Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey,” Drew Goddard’s “Project Hail Mary” and Rashida Jones and Will McCormack’s “The Invite,” as well as Los Javis’ “La Bola Negra” and Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune: Part Three,” which has yet to be screened.
“I Play Rocky” has been gaining momentum since its world premiere at TIFF. He finished second for the People’s Choice Award behind “La Bola Negra” and was a finalist in Middleburg. He also won the Audience Award at the Cinéfest Sudbury International Film Festival, and recently Ippolito received the Breakthrough Award at the SCAD Savannah Film Festival. It recently opened on November 6 in seven theaters, grossing $345,000 from seven theaters, an average of $49,200 per location. The film has also already been called in one category: It’s entering the Golden Globes as a musical or comedy, joining a group that includes “Wild Horse Nine,” “The Debut” and its Amazon MGM partner “Project Hail Mary.”
The Academy’s final word likely won’t be made public until nomination voting opens on January 11, 2027. Before then, the WGA will announce its screenplay nominees on January 8. Oscar nominations will be announced on January 21, and the 99th Academy Awards will take place on March 14.
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