Thursday, April 18, 2013

the rock whants in on star wars

By the end of May, Dwayne Johnson will have starred in four different movies released in 2013. The wrestler-turned-actor has kept incredibly busy over the last couple years, making Snitch, G.I. Joe: Retaliation, Pain & Gain and Fast & Furious 6, and his star is only getting brighter. Packed with charisma and backed by the love of movie-going audiences, Johnson has incredible potential for his career as an actor. And he has big plans for the future.

With the G.I. Joe sequel due out in theaters next weekend, the star sat down with journalists, including myself, for a press day held in Los Angeles, and in addition to discussing his latest film, also talked about what he has in store for us in the coming years, the movies he wants to be a part of, and the projects that just ended up falling apart. Read the full interview below to learn about Johnson’s desire to be a part of J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars, what we can expect from Brett Ratner’s Hercules, the potential future of Fast & Furious 6’s Luke Hobbs, and what happened to both Lobo and Shazam.

Isn’t this what G.I. Joe should have been all along? You just get Bruce Willis and The Rock to play G.I. Joe!

[laughs] That’s what I’ve been saying all along! The first G.I. Joe, as you guys know, came out and made a lot of money. But we all collectively felt there was a better movie to be made. As we all know, sequels can be tricky. So when you take a crack at them… and not only are you taking a crack at a sequel, but it is also our opportunity to relaunch and reboot and reignite. We’re going to do it the right way. We’re going to remove the lasers, we’re going to remove the slickness of it and bring it back to respecting the mythology of G.I. Joe. Add some new blood, and we’re off to the races!

How do you feel about the “franchise Viagra” moniker that you’ve developed over the last few years?

Could be a lot worse! It’s an interesting thing to come into a franchise and reinvigorate things and it seems like it’s working. Yeah, we’ve been kind of fortunate. It’s a good thing. It’s a good thing because it’s a good thing if it fits. In this case it’s fit very nicely. If you look at Fast and the Furious or G.I. Joe or even Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, on the family level, it fits nicely too. Both brands fit nicely. If I can come in and help elevate a franchise or add something to it…and not only that but create a character that is interesting to people and people will enjoy seeing, whether it’s Fast or Furious or it’s something like this, a character that’s already established in Roadblock….like I said, it’s challenging, but it’s also fun. The fun of it is how do we execute it? How do we go in and really reignite something? I love challenges like that.

Who is the toughest character that you’ve played? If all of your characters had to fight each other which one would prevail?

Oh, hands down, Paul Doyle from Pain & Gain. You haven’t seen that, but you’ll see. Hands down. He’s a scary guy. A scary guy and a real guy, which makes it more scary.

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