It’s the knockout movie of the holidays! Critics and fans are excited to see the ‘Rocky’ CREED franchise is back starring Michael B Jordan and a new face and a new director.
The A-Scene’s Francesca Amiker spoke with the cast and the film director for ‘CREED II’ and you won’t believe how real every punch was.
‘CREED II’ is just as electric as the original. Moments in the theater left people in the audience bobbing and weaving from their seats. This is masterfully crafted bringing the ‘Rocky’ saga to a whole new generation.
'Creed II' behind the filmings
‘CREED II’ dives deeper into how Adonis, seeking to confront the legacy of the father he never knew, comes face-to-face with the man responsible for Apollo’s death … and with Rocky’s own trauma more than three decades afterward.
As Adonis achieves the heavyweight championship title, just as his father, and his mentor Rocky, did before, he struggles inside himself with the meaning of that success. Is he fighting for himself, or for the father he never knew?
Meanwhile, deep inside Ukraine, there’s a man who will force Adonis to confront history: Ivan Drago, the man who killed Apollo Creed in the ring before losing to Rocky in a dramatic U.S.-Soviet super-match.
When Ivan lost that fight, he lost everything, and his son, Viktor, was forced to grow up in a hard life as he learned to hate while training to box. When Adonis wins the heavyweight belt, Ivan and Viktor Drago see their chance, and become determined to defeat him for their family’s redemption.
Through the introduction of Adonis — the illegitimate son of boxing legend Apollo Creed, Rocky’s onetime opponent-turned-friend and coach —the film reinvigorated and expanded the Rocky cinematic tapestry by returning the series to its underdog roots.
Its gritty, compelling depiction of a young boxer pursuing his dream, searching for identity, and fighting for an opportunity to prove his self-worth became a fable again for a new generation, many of whom weren’t even born when Rocky became 1976’s highest-grossing film, was nominated for ten Academy Awards, won three (including Best Picture of the Year), and launched the career of its then-unknown star and screenwriter Sylvester Stallone.
“We wanted to evolve the relationship and the characters and build on what we started on in Creed I. What would a boxer be going through? What would Adonis be going through this time around? We wanted to give him a family and challenge him with everything that comes along with that,” Jordan said.
“You were getting smacked. You were doing the smacking. It looks so real. Talk to me about the special effects, the behind the scenes, everything,” Amiker asked the heartthrob!
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“We did everything. There was no stunt guys. Me and Flo did our own stunts. We got hit when we needed to get hit, the slow-motion stuff. We’re competitive and we really wanted to do things the old-school way,” Jordan said.
They even landed in the hospital, but no worries, the swollen eyes we see in the film are all prosthetic.
“It took a lot of time. You have to stop. Do a scene and put blood on or take 45 minutes to create a swollen eye,” director Steven Caple tells the A-Scene.
But it’s that authenticity that Caple Jr.,30, and real life heavyweight champion Florian Manteanu,28, wanted to come across the screen.
“This was your first on-air acting. When I tell you congrats that comes from the thousands of people who have seen this movie. You did it,” Amiker said.
“I’m a big fan of the franchise. I grew up with the Rocky movies. I’m showing a lot of emotions and order to do that, I had to connect it to real life moments. Negative moments,” Florian Munteanu said.
Caples says this was his first time directing a fight movie and it was kind of like learning the moves to a dance. He says he pulled on his own culture to give the movie a fresh feel and the actors took it to a new level.
“Long nights, hard days like these two and a ring… They can take each other out. They are always getting there emotionally. He’s crying in the ring, so Mike is there for him and they are patient with each other,” Director Steven Caple Jr said.
“People don’t understand the bond. It was like going through Boot Camp together. When you go through a process like this, you come out the other side very very close so he’s a brother of mine,” Jordan said.
‘CREED II’ hits theaters November 21, 2018.
