Sylvester Stallone explains "Rocky 6"

Slyvester Stallone was up in Denver today, promoting "Rocky Balboa" (the actual title) which comes out Dec. 20.

Yeah, another Rocky movie. I saw it, it's better than you'd expect, but it didn't really work for me. Full review to come.

Here's some highlights from the interview:

- They gave me like 25 minutes to talk to him -- that's a lot for a movie interview; the TV and radio guys were just getting 5 minutes. Must be my good looks and charming personality.
- Everybody asks if he's short. Not exceptionally -- he was about the same height as me (5-9), but he has this ginormous head and huge hands (and he's still pretty ripped), so he gives the impression of being bigger than he really is.
- He didn't want to end with "Rocky V" because it, well, sucked.
- He had a lot of trouble getting the studio to finance the film. The old head of MGM thought it was a terrible idea. The wife of the new studio head read the script and loved it.
- He's working on a script for "Rambo IV," but thinks it would be weird to do another Rocky and another Rambo back to back. Which it would be.
- A lot of "Rocky Balboa" is autobiographical -- him coming to terms with his own family and growing older.
- He says he didn't make the movie to reach out to new fans. He was more interested in ending the story for the people who have watched since the beginning.
- He auditioned other real fighters before settling on light heavyweight Antonio Tarver to play the fictional champ, Mason "The Line" Dixon. He needed a fighter who could speak his lines, but also someone who wasn't so physically overwhelming that Stallone would look ridiculous in the ring with him (although that was the entire plot of "Rocky IV").