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Credit: Far Out \/Warner Bros. Pictures<\/p>\n
Sat 18 July 2026 20:15, UK <\/p>\n
The world turns in different ways for different people in Hollywood, but Clint Eastwood<\/a> was ready for it to stop when he questioned why a particular movie even needed to be made in the first place.<\/p>\n In a way, he had a point, since it was a production that was questioned by a lot of people. However, once it was actually released, made a lot of money, won strong reviews, and showed unexpected legs, someone was well within their rights to show up at the legend\u2019s door and force-feed him a slice of humble pie.<\/p>\n As an old man, and someone who\u2019s been an old man since the 1990s, it\u2019s understandable that there are certain modern developments in cinema that left Eastwood confounded. He\u2019s used CGI, but only sparingly, and he enjoyed comic books when he was a youngster, but like many other veterans, he wasn\u2019t too impressed with superheroes becoming the dominant form of big-screen entertainment<\/a>.<\/p>\n Franchises, in general, have been a no-go area for a long time. Yes, he made three Dollars films with Sergio Leone and five Dirty Harry flicks, but the final instalment in each series was released in 1966 and 1988, respectively, and after that, the four-time Academy Award winner never returned to the well.<\/p>\n He could have done, especially with nostalgia becoming increasingly important to the studios, but he didn\u2019t. Eastwood rejected a follow-up to The Outlaw Josey Wales, which was made without him<\/a>, and he could have played James Bond and Superman, but neither iconic role was his bag.<\/p>\n Shortly after putting the finishing touches on 2004\u2019s Mystic River, word reached the actor and filmmaker\u2019s ears that, after a decade and a half sabbatical from the big screen, one of modern Hollywood\u2019s most legendary fictional characters was on their way back to the silver screen, and he didn\u2019t know why.<\/p>\n \u201cYou have to start to grow within yourself, or else you\u2019ll start going backwards,\u201d he growled. \u201cI don\u2019t understand Sylvester Stallone. I hear he\u2019s going to do Rocky again. For me, it would look like you\u2019re doing it for a paycheque.\u201d In a way, he was, with Sly\u2019s career having fallen on hard times by the mid-2000s<\/a>, but he also had unfinished business with the \u2018Italian Stallion\u2019.<\/p>\n Further reading: Cutting Room Floor<\/strong><\/p>\n The failure of Rocky V had haunted its creator ever since, and to put things right, he dusted Rocky Balboa off once again and sent him back into the ring. From the outside looking in, it seemed like a transparent and cynical attempt to restore himself to former glories, but the self-titled 2006 sequel was actually pretty good, and it made enough money to give Stallone a shot in the arm and rejuvenate his reputation.<\/p>\n If that\u2019s how Eastwood felt about Rocky Balboa, though, who knows how he felt about Stallone ending another lengthy exile to reprise the role twice more in Creed and Creed II, which were once again more than worthy additions to the Rocky canon.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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<\/a> The Far Out Clint Eastwood Newsletter<\/p>\n