EXCLUSIVE: Iconic actor, screenwriter, director and producer Sylvester Stallone has signed with UTA to be repped in all areas. Stallone moves from CAA.
This comes after the premiere of Sly, the Netflix documentary on Stallone’s life. The film premiered at Toronto before being released on Netflix this month. It has been in Netflix’s worldwide top 10 since debuting on the streamer, marking the beginning of a new career chapter.
That arc will involve Stallone continuing to build Balboa Productions, using the platform to help launch the next generation of writers, filmmakers and stars. Balboa Productions will work across all media and genres, with a focus on stories that are positive and aspirational. Stallone launched the company in 2018, its first credit coming on the Taylor Sheridan-created Tulsa King. That series from 101 Studios and Paramount+ stars Stallone as mafia capo Dwight “The General” Manfredi, who gets freed from prison and sent out to pasture to create a criminal enterprise in Oklahoma. When he succeeds, the goodfellas from New York want a bigger level of control at his expense, and local criminals are none too pleased either. The drama, which marked Stallone’s first starring role in a scripted series, is a real crowd-pleaser and has been renewed for a second season.
Stallone also signed Balboa Productions to a first-look deal with Amazon Studios through its recently acquired MGM unit. That move reunited Stallone with MGM, where his career was made when he realized a puncher’s chance with a knockout Best Picture win for Rocky back in 1976. He also was Oscar-nominated for Best Actor and Original Screenplay.
Under the multi-year pact with Amazon Studios, Stallone will write, direct, produce and star in film and television projects – both scripted and unscripted – developed through Balboa Productions, which he founded with Braden Aftergood. Aside from sequels and spinoffs spun from his Rocky Balboa creation, Stallone has driven the blockbuster franchises Rambo and The Expendables.