I Play Rocky director was nervous showing film to Sylvester Stallone

I Play Rocky director Peter Farrelly was nervous to show the finished film to Sylvester Stallone.

Farrelly's biographical drama depicts the making of the 1976 boxing classic Rocky, which Stallone wrote and insisted he should star in, despite studio heads wanting a bigger name to play Rocky Balboa.

Although the project had Stallone's blessing, Farrelly admitted to Entertainment Weekly that he was nervous to show the final cut to the action man.

"He loved it," Farrelly said. "I was a little nervous, to be honest, because he was watching it alone at his house. And this movie, if you watch it with a crowd, you feel it, and I didn't know how he would respond. But he called right after."

The Green Book director insisted from the beginning that he would not make the movie without Stallone's blessing, and he found it "very easy" to get thanks to Peter Gamble's script.

"I told Toby Emmerich, the producer - I said, 'I want to do this movie, but I'm not doing it unless Stallone signs off on it,'" Farrelly recalled. "So he read it. We sat down and I told him to his face, 'I'm not doing it unless you love it and want us to do it.' He said, 'I want you to do it.'

"I said, 'Great. Let's go.' It was pretty simple. But the script is so darn good. It really is amazing. I knew he was gonna like it."

In I Play Rocky, Stallone is portrayed by Anthony Ippolito alongside AnnaSophia Robb as his wife, Sasha Czack, Matt Dillon as his father, and P. J. Byrne and Toby Kebbell as Rocky's producers, Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff.

The Rambo star recently voiced his approval of the movie via Instagram, writing, "Every story has a beginning and I'm excited to see this one brought to life. Congratulations to the cast and crew of I Play Rocky. Keep punching."

I Play Rocky will open in cinemas on 6 November.