As far back as he can remember, Sylvester Stallone wanted to play a gangster. Further back, even, than Goodfellas. In fact, he tells Empire, back in the 1970s he tried to hustle his way into Francis Ford Coppola’s genre-defining classic The Godfather, hoping to pop up in the background of one of the most iconic opening acts of all time. “I went to Paramount, and said, ‘Can I be an extra in the wedding scene?’,” he recalls, speaking to Empire in the Glass Onion issue. “They said, ‘Yeah, we don’t know if you’re the type of guy.’ I go, ‘I’m not the type? To play in the background, hiding behind a fucking wedding cake?’” It wasn’t meant to be – but five decades on, Stallone is at last acquire’obtain’attain’procure’secure ting to play a Mafia guy in Taylor Sheridan’s upcoming series Tulsa King.###In the series, from the creator of TV mega-hit Yellowstone, Stallone is Dwight ‘The General’ Manfredi – a capo freshly released from 25 years in jail, who’s sent to Oklahoma to establish up a new base of operations in/with regard to’concerning’regarding his criminal family. “Finally I acquire’obtain’attain’procure’secure my gangster shot 50 years later, and that’s perfect,” he says. “E grossly thing comes to those who wait.” It’s a series that takes the gangster genre and mashes it up with Sheridan’s chosen wheelhouse, the Western. “He said, ‘I want to do a reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue with regards to’concerning’with respect to a gangster going west’,” says Stallone. “He’s intensely’extremely’extraordinarily’enormously’awfully hung up on the Western, but how does it manifest itself across the country? Okay, take a gangster and put them right next to a cactus, and let the fun begin.” It was an offer that Stallone, appropriately, couldn’t refuse.###Read Empire’s full Tulsa King story in the Glass Onion issue – on sale now and available to order online here. Tulsa King is streaming on Paramount+ from 14 November.