Forever the underdog

Reporter: “Rocky, the press has labeled you a ‘Balboasauras’ who should be in a museum. With all the ‘ring rust,’ how do you think you’ll hold up against the champ?”

Rocky: “Well, ya really don’t know much about nobody until ya lend ‘em money or punch ‘em hard.”

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YES, as implausible as it might seem, Rocky Balboa is back for Round 6. Though the script certainly doesn’t dance around the fact that the Italian Stallion is stepping back into the ring in his twilight years, Sylvester Stallone’s decision to get back into the ring has become the fodder for countless jokes.

David Letterman’s “Top Ten List” was among the first to take dead aim: “Constantly says ‘Yo, Adrian, got my Lipitor?’ ” went one zinger. “After tapping hands with other fighter, says, ‘Not so hard!’ ” went another. A writer quipped in the Miami Herald: “Historians are calling it irrefutable proof that mankind has officially run out of good ideas.” And one Internet message board posed the question: “Shouldn’t Rocky have massive brain damage by now from getting hit in the head way too much just like Ali?”

Enough with the “Rocky” jokes already, complained Joe Roth, who heads Revolution Studios, which along with Sony Pictures and its new banner, MGM, is producing the new Rocky picture. “You can’t turn on television without someone making fun of it,” he said. “Jokes like, ‘Who’s he going to fight, Alan Alda?’ Or, ‘Who’s he going to fight, an HMO?’ ... It’s very easy to be cynical.”

Roth said he expected the announcement to trigger some humor, but added: “I’m surprised at the vehemence [toward the new Rocky project]. I don’t want to believe people can be that nasty. They should reserve judgment, frankly, at least, until they read the script.”

The script for “Rocky Balboa” has the over-the-hill Balboa taking on the reigning heavyweight boxing champ Mason “The Line” Dixon. Both men are trying to restore their dignity: Dixon because he’s reviled by fight fans for taking on unproven opponents; Rocky because its been years since the aging boxer from South Philly has climbed into a ring

The film, with Stallone as star and director, begins principal photography Dec. 3 at the Mandalay Bay resort in Las Vegas. The cameras will be recording crowd scenes that night at the real-life Bernard Hopkins-Jermaine Taylor middleweight title rematch for use in the movie.

It’s the sixth installment in the landmark “Rocky” franchise. The original, released in 1976, won three Academy Awards, including best picture, and touched an emotional chord with moviegoers worldwide for its heroic tale of the small-time Philadelphia boxer who tries to prove he can go the distance with heavyweight champion Apollo Creed.

But in the intervening years, the “Rocky” sequels -- “Rocky V” premiered 15 years ago -- like Stallone himself, have see-sawed in box office popularity until now both are seen as icons of a bygone era.

Stallone stunned the world last month with the announcement that not only would he make “Rocky Balboa,” but, at age 59, he also would reprise his role as former Vietnam vet and one-man army John J. Rambo in “Rambo IV,” which is scheduled to begin production sometime in the spring.

Roth said that from a financial standpoint, “Rocky Balboa” makes perfect sense. The production budget on the 38-day shoot is projected to be $24 million -- less than half what the average studio film costs these days. And though Stallone’s North American box office appeal may have tanked in recent years with a string of forgettable films such as “Shade,” “Driven” and “Get Carter,” the actor continues to have strong audience appeal overseas, as does the character of Rocky.

Certainly in the early years, the franchise was lucrative. The original “Rocky” grossed $117.2 million domestically, with “Rocky II” grossing $85.2 million, “Rocky III” $125 million and “Rocky IV” $127.9 million. But by 1990, the onetime champ was on the ropes as “Rocky V’s” domestic gross dropped to $41 million.

“It’s interesting how Rocky and Sylvester have been so inextricably connected over the years,” said Robert Chartoff, who, with Irwin Winkler, produced all the previous Rocky movies. “People see him as Rocky, to some extent.

“We are very aware that it has been many years since ‘Rocky’ was made,” added Chartoff, who, along with Winkler and Stallone, will serve as executive producer on the new film. “There is going to be a new audience seeing it. Our criterion in making this film is to have it stand on its own. It has qualities to be a wonderful motion picture just because of what it is, not just because it’s a sequel to ‘Rocky.’ ”

Revolution says there are plans for a special DVD collection next year to mark the 30th anniversary of “Rocky,” which should help boost awareness of “Rocky Balboa,” currently scheduled for release during the President’s Day holiday in 2007.

Stallone will be getting a smaller upfront fee to star and direct the film, those sources add, but should the film become a global blockbuster, there are back-end deals that would allow him to profit handsomely.

It wasn’t the modest production cost that sold Roth on the “Rocky Balboa” project. He said Stallone’s script harks back to the original.

It opens with Dixon (Antonio Tarver is set for the part) in the ring landing a blow on an opponent’s chin, sending the other boxer to the canvas. But rather than cheer, the crowd reacts with loud booing and hurls ice at Dixon’s corner. “Another disappointing title defense,” says the ringside commentator. The next scene finds Rocky seated on an old folding chair in a graveyard where his wife, Adrian, is buried. Seated nearby is Rocky’s brother-in-law, Paulie. Rocky rises, kisses the headstone and leaves. (Producers say Burt Young will return as Paulie and Talia Shire will reprise her role as Adrian in flashbacks.)

With these two contrasting, emotionally charged scenes, Stallone reintroduces us to Rocky Balboa and his world, setting the stage for what is surely one of the most improbable comebacks in boxing history.

Rocky’s “wife has died, he’s alone, he’s an embarrassment to his son, he has nothing to lose and is desperate to not make a third act of his life go in anonymity,” Roth said.

The bittersweet script has Rocky living in a fast-changing world, but still driven to prove himself, even if it elicits ridicule from those around him.

Rocky now owns a restaurant in the South Philly neighborhood where he grew up, posing for photos with fans who trickle in urging him to tell a few “stories” about the good ol’ days when he fought Apollo Creed. The old neighborhood is changing. Asians have replaced the Italians. Rocky orders cheeses from a Vietnamese vendor, lettuce and other produce from a Korean vendor. Rocky’s son, Robert Jr. (played by Milo Ventimiglia), now works for a big corporation. And he doesn’t have time for his old man.

Then, one day ESPN telecasts a computer-generated recreation of great athletes of different eras competing against one another in a simulated ring contest. One matchup pits southpaw slugger Rocky Balboa against current champ, Dixon.

It spawns an idea in Dixon’s camp for an exhibition bout. And Rocky, of course, is up for the challenge.

Stallone tackles the age issue head-on in the script. At one point, his son asks Rocky: “Don’t you think you’re too -- ya know, old?” Rocky replies: “Yeah but ya think ya oughta stop ‘trying things’ ‘cause ya had a few too many birthdays? I don’t.” He adds: “What’s crazy with standin’ toe to toe sayin’ ‘I AM.’ ”

One of Rocky’s biggest hurdles is getting the approval of the state boxing commission. Even though he passes the physical, the commission still balks, which provokes this exchange between a commissioner and Rocky:

“We’re only looking out for your interests,” the commissioner says.

“Yeah, I appreciate it,” Rocky replies, “but I think you’re lookin’ out for your interests a little -- I mean, you shouldn’t be askin’ people to pay the freight, an’ they pay it, an’ still it ain’t good enough?! Think that’s right? Maybe ya doin’ your job, but why ya gotta stop me from doin’ mine, cause if ya willin’ to go through all the battlin’ ya gotta go through to get to where ya wanna get, ain’t nobody got the right to stop ya!”

The script was already written when Roth came on board. Roth said he was attending a New Year’s Eve party last year at the One & Only Palmilla resort in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, when he happened to run into Stallone.

“I don’t know Stallone very well, just enough to say ‘Hello,’ ” recalled Roth. “But he knows I’m a boxing fan and a big fan of his [‘Rocky’] movie. He told me he had written a script for a new ‘Rocky’ and wondered if I would be interested in reading it.”

As fate would have it, Roth said, “Rocky” co-producer Winkler walked into the same party about an hour later and the project soon took off. “He believed, as we believed, that the time could be right for another ‘Rocky.’ ”