Hollywood star Sylvester Stallone has called out his long-time friend and co-star Dolph Lundgren over an upcoming spin-off to the Rocky franchise.
Stallone, 76, who played the Philadelphia boxer Rocky Balboa in the smash-hit ‘70s Rocky films - six installments spanning over three decades – expressed his frustration after MGM announced a new spinoff film, Drago - focusing on Lundgren’s Rocky IV character, Russian boxer Ivan Drago.
The Expendables actor turned to his Instagram handle and shared his disappointment by writing, “94-year-old producer,” pointing at Rocky series producer Irwin Winkler.
“ONCE AGAIN, IRWIN WINKLER, this PATHETIC 94-year-old PRODUCER and HIS [expletive] VULTURE CHILDREN, Charles and David, are once again picking clean THE BONES of another wonderful character I created without even telling me,” Stallone wrote alongside a screenshot of the news.
“I APOLOGIZE [sic] to the FANS, I never wanted ROCKY characters to be exploited by these parasites …By the way, I once had nothing but respect for Dolph but he NEVER told me about what was going on behind my back with the character I created for him!!! REAL FRIENDS are more precious than gold.”
The First Blood star followed up the post with another furious rant and shared a photoshopped image of Winkler wearing vampire teeth having sucked blood from Rocky’s neck.
Lundgren, 64, has since addressed Stallone’s rant, saying there were currently “no deals in place” for a spin-off.