The Rocker (film)

Infobox Film
name = The Rocker


caption = Promotional poster
director = Peter Cattaneo
producer = Fox Atomic
writer = Maya Forbes & Wallace Wolodarsky
Story by Ryan Jaffe
starring = Rainn Wilson
Christina Applegate
Teddy Geiger
Josh Gad
Will Arnett
Emma Stone
rated = PG-13
music =
cinematography = Anthony B. Richmond
editing =
distributor = 20th Century Fox
released = August 20, 2008
runtime = 102 Minutes
country = United States
language = English
website = http://www.rockermovie.com/
budget = $15 millionmojo title|id=rocker|title=The Rocker ]
gross = $6 million (as of September 10, 2008)
imdb_id = 1031969

"The Rocker" is a comedy released on August 20, 2008. It stars Rainn Wilson, Josh Gad, Christina Applegate, Teddy Geiger, Will Arnett, Emma Stone, and Bradley Cooper. The film was written by Maya Forbes & Wallace Wolodarsky, best known for his Emmy-winning work on "The Simpsons" from a story by Ryan Jaffe, and directed by Peter Cattaneo, whose most-acclaimed earlier work is "The Full Monty", a film for which he received an Oscar nomination as Best Director. Despite relatively heavy promotion, the film is notorious for being one of the least-profitable of 2008.

Plot

The Rocker tells the story of an unsuccessful drummer who is given a second chance at fame. Robert "Fish" Fishman is the extremely dedicated and astoundingly passionate drummer for the eighties hair band Vesuvius, who is living the rock n' roll dream until he is unceremoniously kicked out of the band. Twenty years after his rock star fantasies are destroyed, just when Fish has finally given up all hope, he hears that his nephew's high school rock band A.D.D. is looking for a new drummer. They reluctantly make him the newest member of the band, giving him a chance to reclaim the rock God throne he's always thought he deserved, and taking the young band along for the ride of their lives.

Cast

* Rainn Wilson as Robert “Fish” Fishman, drummer
* Christina Applegate as Kim
* Josh Gad as Matt Gadman, keyboardist
* Teddy Geiger as Curtis Wood, lead vocalist and guitarist
* Emma Stone as Amelia, bassist
* Will Arnett as Lex

Promotion

To promote the movie, the song "Promised Land", as performed by the fictional band Vesuvius, was released as free downloadable content for the video game "Rock Band", which is shown being played in the movie.

A viral marketing effort for the film was begun on August 11, when Rainn Wilson posted a message to the MySpace blog of Jenna Fischer, his co-star from "The Office". According to his message [ [http://www.myspace.com/pambeesley A Personal Message From Jenna’s "Friend", Rainn Wilson] an entry from the MySpace blog of Jenna Fischer ] , he had "kidnapped the lovely Jenna, put her, bound, in the trunk of my firebird and logged onto her MySpace to send out this bulletin....To free America's sweetheart...you must attend my new movie, 'The Rocker', which opens August 20th....As soon as the film grosses 18.7 Mil, she will be released and given a peach smoothie." A subsequent blog entry pointed readers to http://freejennanow.com/, where videos were posted and features such as a "Free Jenna Game" and countdown tickers could be found.

Critical reception

Based on 92 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, "The Rocker" had an overall approval rating of 36 percent, with a weighted average score of 5.1/10. [rotten-tomatoes|id=10009055-rocker|title=The Rocker] "Entertainment Weekly" gave it a C-, saying "the film ... shamelessly ... rips off "School of Rock", recycling its flaky-educator loser-of-the-gods premise, only this time in high school" [ [http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20219201,00.html Review of "The Rocker"] from "Entertainment Weekly"]

Box office

The Rocker was released on August 20, 2008 in the USA. It disappointed at the box office, opening outside the Top 10 at #12 with $2.64 million for its first weekend, grossing less than $7 million overall during its entire theatrical run.. One of the stars of the film, Emma Stone, had another film ("The House Bunny") open the same weekend. It fared much better than "The Rocker", opening at #2.

Project History

Loosely based on an actual event in story creator Ryan Jaffe's real life. Jaffe plays roller hockey with a group of friends in Hollywood. During a game, one of the high school aged players mentioned his band needed a drummer. One of the adult players piped up and offered to play with the teen rockers and an idea was born.

References