The improbable story of legendary action star and director Sylvester Stallone is one worthy of a documentary and Thom Zimny was eager to bring that to life with Sly. Zimny has a well-trained eye for documentary filmmaking, developing projects around iconic figures like Bruce Springsteen, Johnny Cash, and Elvis Presley. Unlike some of his previous films, however, the director was able to dive especially deep thanks to how Stallone was involved, or rather, how he wasn’t. Collider’s Nate Richard spoke to Zimny about the upcoming Netflix documentary during which the director revealed how Stallone let him take the film in whatever direction he wanted.
It would be fair to wonder if Sly had a hand in making Sly. Between the Rocky and Expendables franchises and beyond, he’s had the chance to flex his directorial muscles on several occasions. Zimny also previously worked directly with Springsteen for Springsteen on Broadway and Western Stars, meaning he’s no stranger to getting his subjects’ creative input. With Sly, however, he says that “Sly’s involvement was just the interviews. He never gave me anything of any direction on what the film should have, what it couldn’t say, or what topics we couldn’t go near.” That doesn’t mean Stallone didn’t influence the film at all, but he made sure that it was entirely Zimny’s work at the end of the day:
“I screened the film for him a couple of times, and the only thing that he ever did was give me more imagery to work with. There was no notes, there was no discussion of holding back on a certain theme or an idea or something. He really gave me the freedom to create a story, and that was a great honor because I respect him so deeply as a screenwriter and also an editor and filmmaker, but he gave me the space to tell this story, and in it, his collaboration with me was the space of talking and unpacking his life.”
Stallone Revisited Some of His Underappreciated Work in ‘Sly’
In the interview process, Stallone had an impact through how he approached his old films. He and Zimny spent a lot of time discussing how the actor’s work relates to his life, from bigger franchises like Rambo and Rocky to lesser-appreciated films like Cop Land. Separated from that era, he could find ways to poke fun at himself in bombs like Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot!, but that latter film from James Mangold occupies an odd spot in his catalog. Featuring Stallone with no shortage of A-list co-stars including Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, and Harvey Keitel, Cop Land did well enough with critics, but wasn’t a blockbuster as hoped. Stallone previously said that even though he loved working with Mangold, the film was a detriment to his career, reinforcing the idea that it was on the downswing.
Zimny, then, was stunned to hear Stallone speak so passionately about the project. “I was really taken by his love of Cop Land in that scene that he describes; that was a great surprise,” the director added. “But whenever I was discussing the films, he would always find something that I just never read about, or I was just surprised that he felt that way. That’s part of the beauty of the interview process is that you can go back to these things again and again and get to a place where he’s talking about it in a deep way, and it’s not just a soundbite that says it’s a good film.” Moreover, he found that the film’s performance made a surprisingly good parallel to Stallone. “You know, Cop Land held a lot of promise, but it didn’t make it, and that continues the theme of Sly not being understood or appreciated. Hopefully, this doc is going to turn that, and people will see him as an artist and see the body of work differently.”
Sly drops on Netflix on November 3 and will feature plenty of guests including Talia Shire, Henry Winkler, Quentin Tarantino, and Arnold Schwarzenegger among others. Check out the trailer and add Sly to your watchlist below.