Taglines: Every guy wants to be you. Every girl wants to be with you.
Chris Cole was born to rock. His longtime girlfriend Emily believes his talent could take him all the way – but Chris worships at the altar of Bobby Beers, the fiery frontman for heavy metal legends Steel Dragon. By day, Chris still lives at home with his parents and spends his days repairing copy machines. But when Chris takes the stage, fronting Pennsylvania’s premiere Steel Dragon tribute band, all of that disappears.
Chris Cole is Bobby Beers – mesmerizing audiences with his perfect imitation of Beers’ electrifying vocals. The night his bandmates boot him out of the group, Chris is devastated – until an unexpected phone call changes his life forever: He, Chris Cole, has been tapped to replace Bobby Beers as the lead singer of Steel Dragon. In an instant, Chris rockets to the dizzying heights of sudden stardom, rising from devotee to icon, from rock fan to rock god – the wanna-be who got to be. So what happens when an average guy gets everything he wants – and discovers it’s not enough?
Rock Star is a 2001 American musical comedy-drama film directed by Stephen Herek and starring Mark Wahlberg and Jennifer Aniston. It tells the story of Chris “Izzy” Cole, a tribute band singer whose ascendance to the position of lead vocalist of his favorite band 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 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 started researching on the heavy metal music and tribute bands 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.[4] 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.[6] 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.
Rock Star (2001)
Directed by: tephen Herek
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Jennifer Aniston, Jason Flemyng, Timothy Olyphant, Timothy Spall, Dominic West, Nick Catanese, Dagmara Dominczyk, Beth Grant, Matthew Glave
Screenplay by: John Stockwell
Production Design by: Mayne Berke
Cinematography by: Ueli Steiger
Film Editing by: Trudy Ship
Costume Design by: Aggie Guerard Rodgers
Set Decoration by: Casey Hallenbeck
Art Direction by: Caty Maxey, Richard Schreiber
Music by: Trevor Rabin
MPAA Rating: R for language, sexuality and some drug content.
Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures
Release Date: September 7, 2001
Visits: 113
