01-26-2003, 01:41 AM
Major story from 1popup.com about the rock
Quote:THE ROCK TALKS ABOUT HIS FUTURE PLANS, AND THEY WILL SURPRISE YOU
by Jake T. Icon Updated: 1/25/2003 6:00:34 PM
The Three Count By Jake T. Icon
"An interview with the Rock"
I was just an extra on the set of Rock's latest movie Helldorado and within those five days I was there, I got news that will "Rock" the wrestling world.
Day one, I got to have lunch with The Rock and Arnold Schwarzenegger
Day two, had two guys with guns walk on set and got arrested.
Day three, I find out Rock bought the name the Rock and now can use it without Vince McMahon.
Day Four, Goldberg walks on set.
Day Five, I get my interview and find out that the Rock is returning to wrestling as a heel, wrestling Hogan at No Way Out, wrestling Goldberg at WrestleMania and after that he is QUITTING WRESTLING FOR GOOD to pursue a movie career. That's the news, want the story, read on.
Two months ago, I wrote an article about Rock's behavior on set, saying that he went Hollywood.
I would like to go on record as saying, maybe he did, but the guy I met this month was one of the most humble men I have ever met. It was day one and the shoot took place at Club Ivar in Hollywood. This scene was to be the beginning of the movie where Rock comes into the club as a character named Beck, a bounty hunter, to collect a one hundred thousand dollar debt from a quarterback that is celebrating his Super Bowl win with six other big football players. Rock ends up taking the Super Bowl ring off the quarterback as collateral and ends up kicking ass.
On his way through the club he bumps in to Arnold who ends up doing a small cameo, because Rock does a small cameo in T-3.
It's kind of like a passing of the torch, very similar to John Travolta bumping into Stallone in the movie Staying Alive. Anyway, when these guys had lunch, Rock ate a Caesar's salad out of a bowl you usually serve it out of and a steak. He always ate healthy and that is hard on these sets when craft services serve steak on one end and Snicker bars on the other.
The guy in the picture, whom we will call Showstopper, was just an extra and approached Rock about a script his buddy wrote based on the video game, Spy Hunter. Now usually when extras do this they get kicked off set. Instead Rock heard him out and insisted on seeing the script. Security there was so loose, that the guy who wrote the Spy Hunter script was able to get on set, hand it to Showstopper who in turn handed it to Rock. Rock read it that night and the next day returned the script to Showstopper requesting that he send it to Rock's agent for legal purposes. Rock made that kid's day and luckily I was able to snap a shot with the two together.
Day two, was the same club scene. However two guys who looked like hoods walked right on set and started harassing one of the extras. Mind you, there are about two hundred extras on set. It seemed the extra that was being threatened owed some money to these guys. There were cops on set already and they ended up escorting these guys out. As they did this, the cops found that each guy had a gun on them and they were arrested immediately. Since that moment, anybody that looked suspicious or that had a camera on them had it taken away and security became tighter. Peter Berg, the director, was fuming.
Day three, everybody couldn't stop talking about the Rock. This guy was a star. The way he handled himself on set was all professional. Everybody on that set had a story about him. One that intrigued me was the fact that Rock went out of his way to buy out Vince McMahon for the use of the name The Rock. So expect Vince McMahon not to get an executive producer credit next Rock flick.
Day Four, Goldberg walked right on set, bald head, sunglasses and a big biker outfit. He went right up to the Rock, who was reading his script. Rock was looking down and Goldberg, who towered over everybody in the room, tapped him in the chest and said, "I'm here"! The way he said it, it sounded better then his old quotes, "I'm back" or "Who's next?!" Rock laughed, and said I'll be right there. Rock walked out a minute later had a five minute meeting with Goldberg in the back room. After five, Goldberg left. This made me think, "Why the Hell is he there" and "I know something the wrestling world doesn't".
It was day five and everybody was used to one another. There's a lot of sitting around on these sets because the director and crew have to set up the next shot. I noticed that the Rock would only talk to people who used wrestling terminology, not people who said, "I loved you in Scorpion King" or "I smell what you're cooking!" When our boy in the picture, ShowStopper, went up to Rock and said, "when are you turning heel" and Rock responded, "As soon as I get back", I knew that was the in to get my story. So a group of people asked him questions, and I was one of them. Rock said he doesn't mind jobbing to people to get them over. He said there are current people in the business that won't do that, and that is a problem. Rock went on to say he's back for two pay-per-views.
At No Way Out he's going to fight Hogan again, but this time as a heel. This will lead to a Hogan/Vince match at Wrestlemania when Vince sides with his new star, The Rock. I actually pitched the idea to Rock to call himself Holly Rock, but we will see how that turns out.
Hogan will bring in Goldberg and there is your WrestleMania dream match. Rock said after that he is doing the Hollywood thing and leaving wrestling until Hollywood doesn't want the Rock. From there, Hogan and Goldberg will have their much deserved rematch.. Rock finished by saying he misses the ring, "But I feel that Hollywood is my next challenge".