Rock Star (2001 film)


Rock Star is a 2001 American musical comedy-drama film directed by Stephen Herek from a script by John Stockwell and starring Mark Wahlberg and Jennifer Aniston. It tells the story of Chris "Izzy" Cole, a tribute band singer who ascended to the position of lead vocalist of his favorite band, which was inspired by the real-life story of Tim "Ripper" Owens, singer in a Judas Priest tribute band who was chosen to replace singer Rob Halford when he left the band. After opting the filming rights to the story, Warner Bros. hired Stockwell to write the script. Brad Pitt was initially signed to play the lead role but left due to creative differences, and Wahlberg was eventually hired for the part. Rock Star garnered mixed reviews from critics and was a box office flop, grossing $19 million worldwide against a production budget of $57 million.

Plot

In the mid-1980s, Pittsburgh resident Chris Cole is a fanatical admirer of a heavy metal band called Steel Dragon. By day, Chris is a photocopier technician and by night, he is the lead singer of a Steel Dragon tribute band called Blood Pollution.
Internal struggles among the actual Steel Dragon band members culminate with the firing of their lead singer, Bobby Beers, and the beginning of recruitment sessions to find a new vocalist. Chris experiences his own strife with his Blood Pollution bandmates, particularly guitarist Rob Malcolm. During a live performance, Rob's playing fails to live up to Chris' over-demanding standards regarding note-for-note accuracy to the original Steel Dragon recordings, and Chris sabotages Rob's amplifier mid-song – a fight breaks out between the two onstage. The next day, Chris meets Blood Pollution at a rehearsal session, but he finds out that he has been replaced with his arch-rival, the lead singer of another Steel Dragon tribute band. Rob also cites Chris' inability to create his own musical style, preferring to remain the singer in a tribute band.
One day, Chris receives an unexpected phone call from Steel Dragon's founder and rhythm guitarist, Kirk Cuddy, and is offered an audition for the band. After hanging up on Kirk once, thinking he's being pranked by Rob, Chris ecstatically agrees. At the studio, he meets the band and gives an outstanding performance of "We All Die Young". Chris joins the band as their new singer, adopting the stage name "Izzy". Following a successful debut concert with Steel Dragon, Izzy must come to grips with the pressures of his new-found fame and success. The band embarks on a lengthy tour and Izzy experiences the excesses of the lifestyle, with the group's road manager, Mats, serving as a sympathetic mentor to Izzy.
His new lifestyle impacts his life both for better and worse, particularly with his relationship with his supportive girlfriend, Emily Poule, when she decides not to continue with him throughout the remainder of the tour as a rock star girlfriend, though Emily and Izzy agree to get back together when the tour reaches Seattle. Eventually, Steel Dragon stops in Seattle for a show, and Emily arrives at his hotel room as they had previously arranged, although Izzy had become so inebriated while on tour he forgot about the arrangement and did not even know what city he was in. Although taken aback by all the groupies, Emily still tries to reconnect with him, reminding him of their plans to meet up once he got to Seattle, however he is too intoxicated to really understand what she is saying, eventually suggesting they go to Seattle together. Heartbroken with his inconsiderate behavior, intoxication and the fact that he is sleeping with so many groupies, Emily leaves him.
Six months later, Izzy reports to the next series of Steel Dragon recording sessions with song concepts and artwork for the band's next album. The rest of the band rejects Izzy's ideas, with Kirk explaining that the band has to stay true to the "Steel Dragon thing" to fulfill fan expectations. Izzy is angered upon realizing that he was only recruited for his vocal abilities. After a heartfelt conversation with Mats about how he feared he had no control over the direction life has taken him, Izzy begins to reconsider his rock star lifestyle. On the next tour, in a scene directly paralleling one near the beginning of the film with their roles reversed, Izzy hears a fan singing along with him toward the end of a live concert. Impressed, Izzy pulls the fan, who introduces himself as Thor, onstage and hands him the microphone to finish the concert. Backstage, Izzy realizes that what he thought he wanted for so long was not what he wanted, and he says goodbye to Mats, departing from the band while doing so.
Upon ditching his rock star image and stage name, Chris makes his way to Seattle and starts a new band with his old friend and former bandmate, Rob, writing his own music. Chris finds Emily working in the coffee shop she and her roommate purchased a few years earlier, but is initially too ashamed to speak to her. While walking one evening, Emily sees a flyer for his band posted on the wall and takes it down. In the final scene, Chris is singing with his band in a bar and Emily walks in. Chris leaves the stage and speaks to her. They reconcile, ending the film with a kiss and the final note of Chris' first original song "Colorful".
During the credits, Cuddy talks about the future of the band and Beers is shown to have taken up Irish Dancing after his sacking from Steel Dragon.

Cast

The band members are portrayed by ex-Dokken and current Foreigner bassist Jeff Pilson, Black Label Society founder & Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Zakk Wylde, actor Dominic West, and ex-Foreigner and Black Country Communion drummer Jason Bonham. Myles Kennedy, who was at the time the lead vocalist of The Mayfield Four and now the frontman of Alter Bridge and Slash's solo project, makes a cameo appearance.
The singing voice for Wahlberg's character was provided by Steelheart frontman Miljenko Matijevic for the Steel Dragon Songs, and the final number was dubbed by Brian Vander Ark. Jeff Scott Soto provided the voice of the singer Wahlberg's character replaces. Kennedy is the only actor whose actual voice is used.. Ralph Saenz also appears briefly, as the singer auditioning ahead of Chris at the studio.
Blood Pollution is also made up of known musical artists, including guitarist Nick Catanese, drummer Blas Elias, and bassist Brian Vander Ark. Actor Timothy Olyphant portrays Blood Pollution's guitarist, Rob Malcolm. Bradley, the singer who replaces Chris in Blood Pollution, is played by Third Eye Blind frontman Stephan Jenkins.

Blood Pollution
  • Mark Wahlberg as Chris "Izzy" Cole
  • Jennifer Aniston as Emily Poule
  • Timothy Olyphant as Rob Malcolm
  • Blas Elias as Donny Johnson
  • Nick Catanese as Xander Cummins
  • Brian Vander Ark as Ricki Bell
Steel Dragon
  • Jason Flemyng as Bobby Beers
  • Timothy Spall as Mats
  • Dominic West as Kirk Cuddy
  • Jason Bonham as A.C.
  • Zakk Wylde as Ghode
  • Jeff Pilson as Jörgen
Spouses
 Others

Production

After The New York Times ran a story on Tim "Ripper" Owens in 1997, various Hollywood studios ran to option the filming rights. Warner Bros. won the bid, and hired John Stockwell to write the script. Stockwell soon began researching the heavy metal music and tribute band scene and visited Owens' hometown of Akron, Ohio. Afterwards the project, under the working title Metal God, got the involvement of George Clooney's newly founded Maysville Pictures. Brad Pitt signed to star in 1998, but wound up dropping the project following creative differences with the studio. Eventually Mark Wahlberg, a former rapper with Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch who co-starred with Clooney in Three Kings, was hired for the main role in May 1999. Stephen Herek signed to direct in October, and the following month Jennifer Aniston became attached for the main female role, while Callie Khouri was hired to revise the script.
Wahlberg spent five months preparing for his role as Chris Cole, working with a vocal coach, growing his hair, attending the metal scene and wandering around Los Angeles in-character. A concert scene was shot at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena before 10,000 Metallica and Megadeth fans.
While filming one Steel Dragon performance, the crew pranked Wahlberg by playing Marky Mark's "Good Vibrations" instead of a rock track, and footage of this is featured during the film's end credits. By 2001, Warner renamed the project from Metal God to Rock Star in order to attract a broader rock fandom instead of just metal fans.

Reception

The film opened at at the U.S. box office taking US$6,018,636 in its opening weekend, and grossing a domestic total of $17,008,282 and $2,325,863 internationally for a worldwide gross of $19,334,145; based on a $57 million budget, Rock Star was a box office bomb.
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 52% "Rotten" score, with the consensus "Like its title, Rock Star is rather generic, being not so much about the heavy metal scene than about rock cliches and formula". On another aggregator, Metacritic, the film is rated 54 based on 32 reviews.
When Judas Priest bassist Ian Hill was asked about his reaction to Rock Star in an interview in PopMatters magazine Hill responded "Well, it was a true work of fiction, you know? When we heard about the production company were going to make a movie based, as far as we knew, about Ripper joining the band we offered our help. We said 'If there's anything you want to know, talk to us at the time.' And certainly our communication was cut off and that was it and they went off on their own tangent." Hill added "I mean, I quite enjoyed the movie. It was entertaining, you know?" Hill was quoted as saying "It had nothing to do with Rob Halford, Ripper Owens and Judas Priest, it's got nothing to do with that, whatsoever. It was fiction. Apart from the fact that 'Local Boy Makes Good'? That was the only true aspect of the movie." Hill was quick to add "I watched it once. I don't have the urge to watch it again."

Soundtrack

A small number of the songs featured in the film and on the soundtrack were released after the dates given in the film. They are marked with an asterisk.
Partial list of songs that were featured in the movie but did not appear on the soundtrack CD:
The film was released on DVD and VHS on January 22, 2002 by Warner Home Video.