Anthony Ippolito Comes to Life as Young Sylvester Stallone in First I Play Rocky Footage

I Play Rocky, which follows the making of the iconic Sylvester Stallone movie, arrived in heavyweight fashion to Las Vegas on Wednesday during Amazon MGM Studio’s CinemaCon presentation.

Anthony Ippolito stars as a young Stallone in the drama, which tells the true Hollywood story of making Rocky — the tale of an unknown actor who bets on himself to become Rocky Balboa. Directed by Peter Farrelly,the filmwill open nationwide in theaters Nov. 20 following a limited release on Nov. 13; it’s just in time for Rocky‘s 50th anniversary, as the original was released Nov. 21, 1976.

Farrelly appeared on stage with Ippolito and several members of the young cast, as the director promised, “They’re going to blow you away.” They then kicked to some first-look footage, which sees Ippolito harnessing Stallone’s iconic raspy voice and explaining that he now goes by Mike because kids made fun of his name.

“You don’t got the looks to be a movie star, you talk like you’ve got rocks in your mouth,” he’s told as he tries to become an actor, until his girlfriend, played by AnnaSophia Robb, encourages him to both keep his given name and write his own script, taking the best part for himself. And so he writes Rocky, and then goes on a quest to convince the studio execs to play the titular role.

He eventually does land the gig, putting in hours of training but still doubting his path. By the end, with the iconic Rocky score in the background, the character questions, “This movie is about having a belief in yourself, it’s about going the distance. I put my heart and soul on the page; if I’m not willing to live up to what I wrote, then what’s the point? So do you believe in me, or not?”

Robb, Matt Dillon, P.J. Byrne, Toby Kebbell, Tracy Letts, Jay Duplass, Stephan James, Kiki Seto, Robert Morgan, Saul Stein, Trevor St. John, Erik Palladino and Rob Demery also appear in the film, while Ippolito enters familiar territory of placing the young version of a Hollywood legend — he previously portrayed Al Pacino in the Paramount limited seriesThe Offer.

Rocky, distributed by United Artists and later MGM, is one of the most iconic and financially successful sports film franchises of all time, grossing over $1.7 billion globally, including the modernCreedspin-offs. Stallone created and starred in the movies, with the story of his fighting to act in the 1976 movie, which went on to win the Oscar for best picture, now part of Hollywood history.