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 first working on this project, the film was titled METAL GOD. Then the title became the unwieldy SO YOU WANNA BE A ROCK STAR. This was then shortened to it’s final title of ROCK STAR.
For the international movie poster, Warner Bros. 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. This “No Metal” directive was the reason the final movie poster art (designed by another agency) shows Wahlberg in Seattle grunge era look. This was misleading as his character only made a brief appearance in that type of clothing in the last five minutes of the movie.
For this rejected movie 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.
Client: Warner Bros. Pictures
Unused movie poster concept
