Sylvester Stallone has recut Rocky 6, aka Rocky Balboa, and we’ll get to see the new cut of the movie in the summer. More here.
Following his tinkering with the iconic Rocky IV, Sylvester Stallone admitted that he was looking at putting together alternate cuts of some of his other Rocky movies. He’s been true to his word too, with franchise revival Rocky Balboa next in line for the treatment.
It became known that the original cut of the movie went well past the two hour mark. MGM was believed to be instrumental in Stallone cutting it back to just over 100 minutes, and inevitably, this left a lot on the cutting room floor. Still, the film was very well received, and had it not taken off in the way that it did, we probably wouldn’t have the Creed franchise now.
The specifics of Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky Balboa cut haven’t been confirmed, but it’s arriving in the UK on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray on 15th July 2024. We’re expecting a Blu-ray release too, but thus far, it’s just the Steelbook 4K edition that’s gone up for pre-order. You can find more on its release, and order yourself a copy, right here.
Not to editorialise too much on some matters, but might I just request that Stallone’s recut is more successful than his Rocky IV director’s edit? That managed to strip out so much of the fun of the film, even though the intent was obvious. Also, in the case of Rocky Balboa, the original film – however it came to that release cut – worked.
The 4K disc release comes with both the original version and the new cut, so Stallone hasn’t gone full George Lucas and removed the initial theatrical cuts. That seems the best way to do it: it’ll interesting to see what he does with his film, but we’ll always have the original.
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