Making of

Ladbrokes’ Rocky claimed to achieve the biggest character replacement in Hollywood history by digitally replacing the original cast of the iconic montage from Rocky II.

The campaign is the latest work for the heritage betting brand by creative agency Neverland, and follows, Balloon and Drummers.

The project involved mapping the locations and camera movements of the 1979 film and using motion capture to film a new set of 250 characters which were then inserted into the original film.

The new cast were filmed in a 95m by 50m studio at Budapest’s Origo Studios against grey screen. They ran across 1:1 scale sets that were built to exactly match the locations Rocky runs through including the famous steps outside the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

The 90-second spot was directed by Nicolai Fuglsig (Guinness Sapeurs) for production outfit MJZ. Director of photography George Richmond BSC (Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore) shot on Steadicam and spoke to Steadicam inventor, Garrett Brown (who filmed the original Rocky II sequence) to help match up his filming as closely as possible.

Further campaign developments saw ‘Rockys Gonna Fly Now’ theme song from the original film recomposed by The English Session Orchestra and sung by the London Voices Choir.

Images courtesy of Ladbrokes.