'Rocky' Battle Turns Ugly, Sylvester Stallone Won't Appear In 'Creed III'

The feud between Sylvester Stallone and producer Irwin Winkler appears to have reached new heights.

"Creed III" — a spinoff to the legendary "Rocky" franchise hits theaters Friday. While Stallone had cameos in the first two "Creed" movies, he will not appear in this one.

In an interview on Sirius XM’s "Pop Culture Spotlight with Jessica Shaw" in November, the 76-yard-old actor said he will never watch the third installment, even though he has a producer credit on the movie.

Why the hostility?

Well, Stallone — even though he wrote and starred in "Rocky" — doesn't actually own the rights to the franchise. That's because in the mid-1970s, Stallone, a young unknown in Hollywood, sold the rights to producing partners Bob Chartoff (now deceased) and Irwin Winkler.

The deal was if the movie got made, Stallone would play Rocky.

"Stallone was unknown at that point he had no leverage," one Hollywood insider told The New York Post. "It took balls for the producers to let him star in 'Rocky.' And that made him a star."

Producer Irwin Winkler and Sylvester Stallone during "Rocky Balboa" World Premiere. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/WireImage)

At the time, it seemed like a good deal for the young actor.

"When he wrote 'Rocky' and starred in 'Rocky,' he was a brand new actor," another source told The Post. "Younger actors don’t get ownership. Rarely do studios give ownership to anyone. Studios want to own it. When he did the first 'Rocky,' I don’t think anyone suspected what would happen with it."

But — five decades later — Stallone isn't happy about the deal.

Last July, Stallone posted a photo to his Instagram account of Winkler as a vampire. He was sucking the blood out of Rocky. He since deleted the photo.

In the caption, he wrote, "Throughout history so many artists in every industry, recording, painting, writing, you name it have been destroyed by these blood suckers who have destroyed so many families, lining their pockets with other people's work."

He’s also described Winkler as "presumed to be the most hated, untalented, decrepit producer in Hollywood."

Not only did the "Rocky" series become a huge success. But "Creed" is now on its third installment. And another "Rocky" spinoff, "Drago" — named for the Dolph Lundgren's character Ivan Drago — is in pre-production.

When Stallone got the news, he took to social media to complain about "this PATHETIC 94 year old PRODUCER and HIS MORONIC USELESS VULTURE CHILDREN, Charles and David…" for "picking clean THE BONES of another wonderful character I created without even telling me."

Stallone, who is worth around $400 million, says he doesn't care about the money. He simply wanted to pass along the legacy to his children.

But the actor said that "is never going to happen. I can’t forgive that."