[ad_1]
As he remembers, Sylvester Stallone always wanted to be a gangster.
“It’s always been fun since I turned down being one of the 200 extras standing behind the wedding cake on ‘The Godfather,'” the actor told TV critics during a recent press conference. “Since 1970, I’ve been trying to get into gangster movies, and it never happened. But good things come to those who wait.”
That good thing is “Tulsa King.”
The series, which drops November 20 on Paramount Plus, stars Stallone as mob captain Dwight Manfredi, who has been released from prison after 25 years. Instead of being rewarded for refusing to press his New York bosses, he was whisked away to Oklahoma to start a one-man operation. He’s ordered to send back $5,000 a week, but they’d be just as happy if he could get a job pumping gas and lose their phone numbers.
In many ways, it’s a fish-out-of-water story. Manfredi has to adapt to Uber, legal marijuana and a $5 cup of coffee. But it’s also a series about redemption, especially when he tries to reconnect with his estranged girlfriend.
“He’s trying to be a better person, trying to get his life back together, and he’s doing it in a way that I’ve never had a chance to explore before,” said showrunner Terence Winter, who co-starred in several episodes. creator Taylor Sheridan. “And there’s certainly no better person to do it with and embody that than Sly.”
Stallone, 76, certainly picked the right people to trust in his first scripted series. Winter and Allen Coulter, who directed the first two episodes, were key members of the teams behind “The Sopranos” and “Boardwalk Empire.” Sheridan created “Yellowstone,” the quasi-western hit that begins Season 5 Sunday on Paramount Plus.
Stallone, who once tried to talk to Sheridan in writing the film “Rambo”, hopes for the same promotion “Yellowstone” gave Kevin Costner.
The entire career of this “Rocky” star has been a series of knocks and hits.
His multiple blockbusters make him the only actor to have had a number 1 box-office hit for sixty consecutive years. There were just too many clunkers. Thanks to bombs like “Judge Dredd” and “Rhinestone,” he has been nominated 15 times for the Razzie Award, which “celebrates” failure. Sometimes, he is attached to high-quality projects, such as “Cop Land” and “Creed.”
File “Tulsa” under the last category.
There are many familiar moments – Manfredi kills four people in the first episode – but Stallone has to rely more on double takes and wit than he ever did as John Rambo. In the second episode, a character accidentally gets stoned, resulting in a scene that’s funnier than anything in the infamous bombshell “Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot You.”
“I will say what surprised me was how much humor Sly brings to Dwight,” said Andrea Savage, who plays an FBI agent and potential love interest. “I never saw that.”
Stallone is the latest star to embrace the small screen. Harrison Ford and Arnold Schwarzenegger also have a series on the way.
“In the old days, people would say, ‘No, you’re not going to make it on film. You’re on TV.’ It’s gone,” he said. “Now you have a lot of good actors and actresses and writers doing shows that have that depth and give people an outlet. I’m glad I finally got the chance to jump on that train.”
[ad_2]
Source link