ROCK STAR is loosely based on the real-life story of Tim "Ripper" Owens, lead singer of a Judas Priest cover band who ends up playing with his real-life idols.

When I first started working on this project, the film was titled METAL GOD. Then the title became an unwieldy SO YOU WANNA BE A ROCK STAR. This was shortened to it's final title of ROCK STAR.

For the international poster, the studio wanted to avoid an 80s heavy metal look, for fear of falling into a SPINAL TAP comedy genre. This was difficult given the subject matter and available photography.

For this poster concept, I reworked a unit photography shot of Mark Wahlberg on-stage, washing him in streaks of blue light, which gave a more sophisticated look.