Film producer and director Irwin Winkler spills the beans

Oscar-winning movie producer Irwin Winkler recalls the time he brought a promising script to United Artists. They hated virtually everything about it.

Why should they make a film about a broken-down boxer and his homely girlfriend? There surely was no international market for it. Did it really have to be shot in Philadelphia? And did it have to star some guy named Sylvester?

Winkler insisted. "That's when you make a movie — when everyone tells you no," he says, laughing. "If you follow the rules of commerciality, you're never going to succeed. You've got to try something different and always experiment."

FILE - This Jan. 12, 2014 file photo shows Irwin Winkler, left, and Leonardo DiCaprio at the 71st annual Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills, Calif. Winkler released a new memoir, "A Life in Movies: Stories from 50 years in Hollywood." (Photo by John ShearerInvisionAP, File)

Winkler was vindicated when "Rocky" led by Sylvester Stallone won the 1977 Oscar for best picture. It's just one in an extraordinary list of films Winkler has directed or produced that includes "Goodfellas," ''Raging Bull," ''The Right Stuff," ''The Gambler," ''The Wolf of Wall Street," ''Creed" and the upcoming "The Irishman."

Winkler has lately looked over his hits — and some misses — for a lively new memoir, "A Life in Movies: Stories from 50 Years in Hollywood" (Abrams Press).

It reveals behind-the-scenes nuggets that film buffs may find fascinating. The Associated Press asked Winkler about a few of them. Answers have been edited for clarity and brevity.

FILE – In this April 28, 2000, file photo, actor and screenwriter Sylvester Stallone, right, and his "Rocky" co-star Carl Weathers, left, pose with producer Irwin Winkler at a ceremony honoring Winkler with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles. Winkler released a new memoir, "A Life in Movies: Stories from 50 years in Hollywood." (AP PhotoChris Pizzello, File)

HOW HE FILLED THE SEATS FOR ROCKY'S FIGHTS

"We couldn't afford to bring in extras and pay them a regular fee. So I made a deal with the head of the extras guild in Los Angeles. I made a deal that we would hire 25, maybe 30, members of the guild every day. He gave us the OK to fill up the arena with mannequins, and he would allow us to put electric cigarettes in their mouths. I think I said I thought it would cost us more money to build mannequins. Couldn't we just take people off the street? He was very nice. He said, 'You're not going to find people off the street just to sit in an arena.' He said, 'You should find someplace where people want to get out.' I tried to think of something. I said, 'You know what? Assisted living homes! They got nothing to do all day. They can come and see a movie being shot, which is always a treat. And in order to keep them in their seats, we'll auction off a television set every hour.' The only problem is at 4 o'clock, they needed their meds. So we had to send them back."

'CREED' ACTUALLY HAS TWO ENDINGS

FILE - In this Jan. 30, 1977, file photo, "Rocky" co-producers Irwin Winkler, left, and Robert Chartoff, right, with Sylvester Stallone after receiving Golden Globes at the 34th Annual Golden Globe Awards in Los Angeles. Winkler released a new memoir, "A Life in Movies: Stories from 50 years in Hollywood." (AP PhotoFile)

"The studio, when they green-lit the film, did it with the understanding that Creed would win the big fight at the end. Obviously, that's what the fans would be cheering for. We kind of went along with that, although we always felt that one of the reasons 'Rocky' worked was because he lost the fight at the end but he won his self-respect and he won the girl. So as we went along, Ryan Coogler, the director, kept saying, 'You know, maybe he should lose the fight because basically it's more honest.' We said, 'Yeah.' The studio said, 'Wait a minute. That's not what we agreed to.' So we said, 'OK, we'll have two screenings.' We went to a multiplex and one theater had one version and another had the other so the audience was basically the same. One started 10 minutes earlier than the other. When we got the audience survey cards back, they were basically the same. So the studio reluctantly agreed to our insisting that we go for the ending where he loses."

MARTIN SCORSESE THREATENED TO LEAVE 'RAGING BULL' DURING EDITING

"Every detail to him is worth committing suicide over. We were under the gun. We had to open in New York on Friday. We were in California. It was Sunday night and we had to finish the movie. I had to get it to the lab and make a print and get it to New York. In the bar scene, a guy walks up to the bar and says, 'Get me a Cutty Sark.' Marty said, 'I can't hear the words 'Cutty Sark.' I said, 'We've been in here for months, nobody can hear anything. We're deaf.' I said, 'It's midnight. We're finished. We're wrapping. The lab is waiting.' He said, 'In that case, it's not a Marty Scorsese movie. I want my name off.' This is 'Raging Bull!' He said, 'It's not my movie anymore.' That's how specific he is — a word to him is as important as the whole movie.

This cover image released by Abrams Press shows "A Life in Movies: Stories from 50 years in Hollywood," by Irwin Winkler. (Abrams Press via AP)

DONALD TRUMP WANTED TO BE IN 'THE WOLF OF WALL STREET'

"We shot outside Trump Tower. At night, he came by. He said, 'You should give me a part in this movie.' And he said, 'But it can't be a walk-on.' That was it. Nothing beyond that. Nothing came of it. But he can't control himself, obviously. Whatever ridiculous idea, whether it's getting out of NATO or getting a part in a movie, for him it's all the same."

WINKLER ADVISED RYAN COOGLER NOT TO DO 'BLACK PANTHER'

FILE - This June 21, 2004 file photo shows director Irwin Winkler at the New York premiere of "De-Lovely." Winkler released a new memoir, "A Life in Movies: Stories from 50 years in Hollywood." (AP PhotoLouis Lanzano, File)

"I said to him, 'Ryan, you're a very, very talented young man. You've got a lot to look forward to. Make something very personal. I don't think a Marvel movie is very personal.' What I didn't know was he made it very personal. He was able to do it and I give Marvel a lot of credit. They allowed him to do it and they got the results. But off the cuff, I said, 'You shouldn't do that.' Boy was I wrong."

Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits

NEW YORK (AP) — Google said Sunday that it is expanding the shopping features in its AI chatbot by teaming up with Walmart, Shopify, Wayfair and other big retailers to turn the Gemini app into a virtual merchant as well as an assistant.

An instant checkout function will allow customers to make purchases from some businesses and through a range of payment providers without leaving the Gemini chat they used to find products, according to Walmart and Google.

The news was announced on the first day of the National Retail Federation’s annual convention in New York, which is expected to draw 40,000 attendees from retailer and technology companies this week. The role of artificial intelligence in e-commerce and its impact on consumer behavior are expected to dominate the three-day event.

“The transition from traditional web or app search to agent-led commerce represents the next great evolution in retail," John Furner, Walmart's incoming president and CEO, said in a joint statement with Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichaei.

Google’s new AI shopping feature works this way: if a customer asks what gear to get for a winter ski trip, for example, Gemini will return items from a participating retailers’ inventory.

In the case of Walmart, customers who link their Walmart and Gemini accounts will receive recommendations based on their past purchases, and any products they decide to buy via the chatbot could get combined with their existing Walmart or Sam's Club online shopping carts, according to the statement.

OpenAI and Walmart announced a similar deal in October, saying the partnership would allow ChatGPT members to use an instant checkout feature to shop for nearly everything available on Walmart’s website except for fresh food.

Google, OpenAI and Amazon all are racing to create tools that would allow for seamless AI-powered shopping by taking chatbot users from browsing to buying within the same program instead of having to go to a retailer’s website to complete a purchase. The race between OpenAI and Google has heated up in recent months.

Before the recent holiday shopping season, OpenAI launched an instant checkout feature within ChatGPT that allows users to buy products from select retailers and Etsy sellers without leaving the app.

San Francisco software company Salesforce estimated that AI influenced $272 billion, or 20%, of all global retail sales, in one way or another during the holiday shopping season.

Google said the AI-assisted shopping features in Gemini only would be available to U.S. users initially but that it planned to expand internationally in the coming months. Shoppers initially only can make payments through the cards linked to their Google accounts but soon will be able to make purchases using PayPal, the company said.

The aim of deploying chatbots in e-commerce is to make it easier for people to find what they’re looking for. Instead of entering search terms and keywords, they can type or use voice dictation, and refine their searches through a conversational back-and-forth. Tech companies also are rolling out “AI agents” that are a step beyond today's generative AI chatbots, though their ability to buy products on behalf of consumers is still limited.

“I’m under no false belief that there’s going to be a snap of the finger and then all of a sudden, agentic commerce is going to get everywhere," Mike Edmonds, PayPal's vice president of agentic commerce and commercial growth, said at Sunday's convention. But he cautioned retailers against taking a wait-and-see approach.

Shopify founder and CEO Tobi Lutke told a small group of reporters on Thursday that many people like the experience of “having a personal shopper who really gets them, understands them and can fit something in your budget," but Shopify also wants to make it doesn't “over automate."

“The person, the shopper, is in charge, and they can make the final call, but also we make it so that people find the perfect product for themselves,” he added.

Walmart's Furner said Sunday that the largest employer and retailer in the U.S. is trying to “close the gap between I want it and I have it” with the help of AI.

He and Pichaei announced from a stage at the National Retail Federation conference that Walmart plans to expand drone delivery service to 150 more stores in partnership with Wing, a division of Alphabet. The addition will bring Walmart's drone delivery locations with Wing to 270 by 2027, stretching from Los Angeles to Miami, the companies said.

FILE - Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai speaks at a Google I/O event in Mountain View, Calif., Tuesday, May 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)