Posts Tagged ‘Sylvester Stallone’

Is this really necessary? Today in Cannes, Dave McNary of Variety confirms that a Bollywood film company will soon be remaking Sylvester Stallone’s 2008 offering Rambo. This plan was originally outlined at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, but it is only now – a year later – that full funding is in place:

Daljit Parmar, nephew of the late Bollywood multi-hyphenate Mehmood, said the Rambo and Expendables remakes should be in production by the end of the year.

“I am extremely excited to announce the launch of our slate to remake titles from some of the most successful action franchises in Hollywood on this historic 100-year anniversary celebration of Indian cinema at Cannes,” he said.

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When 14-year-old Fawad Mohammadi boards the first of several planes in Kabul on his way to LA for the Academy Awards, it will mark the first time he has flown on a commercial airliner. Once he lands in Hollywood, he’s hoping for two prizes: the Oscar for Best Live Action Short and an encounter with Sylvester Stallone.

Mohammadi is set to represent Buzkashi Boys. Per a Canadian Press write-up, he and same-age co-star Jawanmard Paiz will be escorted through the proceedings by their Afghan-Canadian director Ariel Nasr and filmmaking partner Sam French:

The trip will cap off an unbelievable journey for Mohammadi in particular, who was selling maps as a street vendor in Kabul to help feed his family when he was cast for the short film…

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Rick Shoemaker and Jeff Maxwell (pictured, left to right) have come a long way since they first met as neighbors at a Studio City apartment complex. The former ascended to personal management and the presidency of Warner Chappell Music Publishing, while the latter played the recurring role of Private Igor Straminsky on M*A*S*H and developed several TV projects.

This dynamic duo is now at the helm of Breaking In with Rick and Jeff, a new CRN Digital Radio Network talk show airing live Saturday nights from 7 to 8 p.m. Each week, they will dispense helpful advice to the same sort of LA showbiz aspiring types that they and their apartment complex neighbors once used to be. In the show blurb, each co-host shares an “interesting factoid:

Rick’s father was Irv Shoemaker, one of the creator-writer-voices (Cecil) for the Emmy winning kids show Beany and Cecil.

Jeff created and produced a TV pilot for CBS Daytime starring Cher’s mother and Sylvester Stallone’s mother. It didn’t sell.

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Sylvester Stallone‘s son, Sage, was found dead at his San Fernando Valley home on Friday from a reported overdose of pills. It’s unclear whether the overdose was intentional or accidental.

He’s best known for playing Robert Balboa alongside his father in Rocky V. Sage was 36.

“Sylvester Stallone is devastated and grief-stricken over the sudden loss of his son Sage Stallone,” Sylvester Stallone’s rep, Michelle Bega, told TMZ. “His compassion and thoughts are with Sage’s mother, Sasha.  Sage was a very talented and wonderful young man.  His loss will be felt forever.”

It’s been three years, Hollywood paparazzo E.L. Woody tells CNN, since he sold a celebrity photo for $10,000. The picture was of Shia Labeouf, at a price tag that still pales compared to the glory days of six-figure and even sometimes seven-figure licensing deals.

Another problem with today’s paparazzi trenches, Woody suggests, is that illegal immigrants have jumped into the game, selling their digital snaps for next to nothing. Nevertheless, the 65-year-old veteran says his kind will always be a part of the Hollywood media fabric:

“Celebrities have to have the photogs. It feeds the ego. Every flash, every click feeds their careers,” he says. “It feeds the supernova of fame…”

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Today in Hamburg, Germany, Sylvester Stallone gifted Jay Leno, Jimmy Kimmel and every other late night talk show host with an early Christmas present–the unbeatable set-up of a musical stage version of 1976 Best Picture Rocky. Insert your David Hasselhoff, raw egg and-or “Reeee-fuuuuund!” jokes here.

The show is not due for another year, and bizarrely will world premiere in that same German city. Stallone is teamed on the venture with real-life boxing brothers Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko, plus a whole range of Manhattan minted stage talent. Per the Hollywood Reporter:

Broadway veteran Thomas Meehan (The Producers) will write the script to Rocky: the Musical. Ragtime’s Tony-award winning lyricist Lynn Ahrens and composer Stephen Flaherty will re-team for the music, which will include songs from the Rocky films, among them “Eye of the Tiger,” “Gonna Fly Now” and “Take You Back.” Tony Award nominee Alex Timbers will direct.

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Michael Gross‘ wonderful new book Unreal Estate, which recounts the sometimes sordid history of sixteen of LA’s most luxurious residential compounds, starts off with a bang.

When the author ran into Roger on a bluff overlooking gated McMansion community Beverly Park, he already knew the details of resident Sylvester Stallone having thwarted Suge Knight‘s efforts to move into a neighboring house around 2001. Based on conversations with the seller of said house and other sources, Gross reports that under cover of the actor’s lawyer and a trust, Stallone swooped in with an all-cash offer that exceeded that of Knight’s by a cool $1 million. But Gross has yet to verify the additional characterization relayed that day by the Cadillac-driving stranger accompanied by a buxom blonde:

Roger told a good story, which may even be true. It goes like this:

“So next thing, Suge and his posse somehow show up at Sly’s door,” Roger says. “You don’t like black people?” one of them asks Stallone.

“No, assh*le, I don’t like you,” Stallone says. At least according to Roger.

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The list of reasons why long-time Hollywood celebrity private investigator Paul Barresi (pictured) was banned from attending his father’s funeral on September 29 in Lemoore, California is long and complex. But certainly one of the contributing factors is his decision to work on a book about his fractured family life, tentatively titled Bless Me Father, For I Have Sinned.

What is much more unusual is how Barresi decided to deal with this traumatic situation. In the same manner that he has staked out locations for law-firm assigned clients ranging from Sylvester Stallone to Arnold Schwarzenegger to Eddie Murphy, Barresi camped out on that day near the church and later at the cemetery, watching from afar through the lenses of high-powered binoculars.

“This was the most painful experience of my life,” Barresi tells FishbowlLA via telephone. “One of my brothers was too sick to attend, but the other two–Matthew and Mark—finally spotted me about halfway through the burial service. They squinted and looked at me with such anger and disdain. I didn’t care that they spotted me. At that point, I came out of the bushes, about 100 yards away.”

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Gunnar Peterson (pictured), the one-time talent agency assistant who has remade himself as a personal trainer to top athletes and Hollywood A-listers, normally charges an amount that “is not unadjacent to $400” for a one-hour workout. But in the case of Guy Adams, west coast correspondent for London’s The Independent, he was happy to waive the fee.

Although Adams says he was sworn to secrecy with regards to the address of this sweaty journalistic assignment, it would seem likely many paparazzi already know where people like Halle Berry, Pete Sampras, and Angeline Jolie spend their non-house call personal trainer dollars. The second-floor Beverly Hills studio also boasts a hilarious signed picture from horse-riding client Sylvester Stallone. The inscription reads: “Never trust anything that can shit and run at the same time!” Writes Adams:

We pummel muscle groups I never knew existed. Peterson escorts me from familiar pieces of kit, such as exercise bikes, to completely alien ones, including a moving staircase which speeds up the faster I run, and a rotating platform designed to improve balance.

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In the old days, major Hollywood film stars such as Jack Nicholson and Sylvester Stallone made a point of attending the Kentucky Derby. But as this Saturday’s 137th running looms, the celebrity pickings are once again pretty slim, part of a recent trend towards celebs of a reality TV pedigree.

Rich Copley, columnist with the Lexington Herald-Leader, delves into the matter with a professor of pop culture at Syracuse University and Access Hollywood producer Rob Silverstein. In a sense, it’s kind of surprising that the cast of Jersey Shore will not be there Saturday:

“We just got back from the royal wedding, and I think of the Derby in the same sort of way, as a pageant of style and fashion,” Silverstein says. “That’s what we come for. I’m not expecting to see 20 to 30 major celebrities.”

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