Along the way, the picture hits every heavy-metal cliche, breathing life into most with the odd detail that lends authenticity: A dissipated rock star gets a complete blood transfusion backstage before an arena show; band members' wives ride in a limousine behind a tour bus while their husbands entertain groupies. 

Capturing the ridiculousness of heavy metal is easy. But to do it in a way that also conveys its grandeur, its moments of glory and its allure -- that takes work. "Rock Star" succeeds, not only thanks to Stephen Herek's direction and John Stockwell's screenplay, but by virtue of a soundtrack featuring good, loud music written for the movie. 

Then there's the cast. Mark Wahlberg, with that weird, complicated innocence he has, is ideal as Chris, an obsessive fan who sings in a tribute band and lives for his idols, the British rock group Steel Dragon. The sight of Wahlberg, with his wide-open face, jubilant and beaming at a Steel Dragon show, brings a mix of emotions. This is true love, so it's sweet. But he's in his mid-20s and he's worshiping nonsense, so it's pathetic. 

In fact, Chris is as pathetic as a guy can be and still have Jennifer Aniston for his girlfriend -- not too pathetic. This is Aniston's best role and her best movie. Previously, she played extensions of her TV personality, but here she gets to embody what her look suggests, a sort of platonic form of ideal girlfriend -- not just pretty, but wry, sharp, loyal. The director seems a bit nutty about her, throwing her as many loving close-ups as one might find in a '40s tearjerker. And the story, which is as much about relationships as it is about rock stardom, gives her plenty to act. 

Young Chris is minding his business one day, feeling like just another loser with big hair, when the phone rings, and it's the guitarist of Steel Dragon, offering him a plane ticket to Los Angeles. The band has seen a tape of one of his tribute-band performances, and they want him to audition to replace their lead singer. He lands the gig. Everything that pierces the barrier between his world and the world of his fantasies -- the limousine passing the rush of fans, the iron gates that open instead of staying shut, the first baby steps into a vision of luxury -- all come with a vicarious thrill. So this is what it's like. 

For the same reason, the first concert makes for an exciting scene. The lights go up, and we see what he sees: 20,000 people screaming and cheering. The bigness of it is awe-inspiring, but it also seems dangerous. Most people aren't built to withstand such adulation. 

ROCK-'N'-ROLL THRILLS
That mixture of excitement and danger carries "Rock Star" a long way. When Chris and Emily (Aniston) go to their first after-the-show party, the barrage of temptations thrown at them becomes overwhelming -- the drugs, the sex, the ego massaging. It's relentless and insidious, and wisely the director doesn't have us observe it from an objective distance. He puts us right on the dance floor with Chris, Emily and some sexy, Eastern European rock temptress who is hot for both of them. That's it. Forget the promises they made. Welcome to the orgy. 

"Rock Star" doesn't tell the usual story about success going to a fellow's head. It's more subtle. It shows how the machinery of rock stardom makes anything like a normal life difficult, even impossible. A virtue of the movie is that, from the beginning, the audience is made to believe in and invest in Chris and Emily's relationship. The result is that, as soon Chris is a big shot, we actually worry about the couple. 

Timothy Spall has a key role as the band's road manager, who at first just seems like some sloppy, decadent creep. He emerges, ultimately, as a realist, who knows the world of heavy metal, knows how things happen, why they happen and why they can't change. Dance with the devil, and you're bound to trip over a big red tail. 

MISSING PIECES
The movie skirts over some aspects of backstage life that we might have liked to see in detail, and Chris's journey as a character is sketchy in places. But it says something when a 108-minute movie seems 10 minutes short. "Rock Star" also gets a little cute near the finish, but there are worse things than cute. 

Along with the drop to more than 1 million names, Warner Brothers is hosting four Web sites and a "Rock Star Groupie Bot," which lets Instant Messenger users add "Rock Star" guides Nina and Samantha to their buddy list. The two characters notify participating IM users when eight songs from the movie are released sporadically on various sites and list several other "Rock Star" promotions and links. 

Another AOL Instant Messenger feature, AIM Today, lets users choose from various "Rock Star" links, including one that allowed them to post their photos under a section called "Do You Look Like a Rock Star?" 

"This new tool was the third-highest traffic generator to the main 'Rock Star' site," said Don Buckley, senior vice president, interactive marketing for Warner Brothers. 

For the e-mail drop, a majority of the names came from WB Movie Mail, a bimonthly mailing to about 500,000 movie fans, along with other Warner Brothers' entertainment e-mail lists. This was augmented with lists from entertainment sites and third-party providers, which Buckley declined to name. 

The primary target demographic for the R-rated film starring Mark Wahlberg and Jennifer Aniston is both sexes, ages 17 to 24. Though Warner Brothers partnered with "hundreds" of sites to promote the film, marketing executives avoided sites with an under-17 audience of more than 35 percent. 

The online marketing was multi-faceted and more intensive than for other films, Buckley said, because of the dual target audience: music fans and a general audience. 

In addition to broad ad buys, Warner Brothers worked with individual music, entertainment and portal sites to develop promotions tailored to the site. For example, MSN's entertainment site includes a "Rock Star" photo puzzle game. 

"We have two full-time publicists and one college market specialist who work editorially with many sites," Buckley said. 

Of Warner Brothers' Web sites for the film, the main site and Rock Star Karaoke, http://rockstarkaraoke.oddcast.com, have been most popular. The main site drew about 400,000 unique visitors and the karaoke site boasted 50,000 user sessions in August. 

On the karaoke site, Oddcast's technology lets users sing along with songs from the movie, record the songs and e-mail their performances to friends. Fans can vote on the best performances. Warner Brothers is tracking the viral response, but does not have final numbers. 

Other sites include Steel Dragon, http://steeldragon.launch.com, the name of a fictional band in the movie, and Blood Pollution, http://bloodpollutionrules.com, named after another band in the film. 

Mark Wahlberg had mixed feelings about playing a musician in Rock Star, even though the former underwear-model-and-performer-turned-actor could say he had the creative side of the character nailed down long before the movie was even an idea in director Stephen Herek's head. On the negative side, Wahlberg had a strange tale to tell PlanetHollywood.com about how his role in the film led him to nearly lose the will to shower. The former Marky Mark came into this interview with decidedly mixed reviews about George Clooney as the executive producer. He was also just a little cranky and rowdy but, well, ready to rock... 

MARK WAHLBERG: Hey, wassup? 

PLANET HOLLYWOOD: I'm great. Tell me what it was like getting into that Rock Star persona? 

MW: It was cool. You know, when I got my hair extensions, it was kind of like a license to go crazy. Like I couldn't dress as Mark Wahlberg, and have the hair extensions, so I did the whole thing. And basically, I lived the part for the whole six months, which got a bit dangerous at times because you're hanging out with the real guys. So there's no going halfway, you know? Like with Jason Bonham, and those sorts of guys. 

PH: What was the big pitch for you with this movie? 

MW: I didn't hear much of a pitch and that was similar in a number of ways to Boogie Nights. Like if I had heard the pitch, I wouldn't have been into the idea and my manager knew that, so he just kinda put the script in front of me. And then there were a lot of people kind of circling around the script, but nobody was really willing to pull the trigger, and go for it. The same thing with Boogie Nights. You know, people were interested in it, but scared at the same time. 

PH: What are your feelings about that mullett look? 

MW: The mullet? The mullet's cool. Nuthin' wrong with the mullet. 

PH: How did you relate to growing your hair long for Rock Star? 

MW: I hated it! That had to be the worst thing that happened to me! 

PH: How come? 

MW: Like I would roll down the car window, and my hair would get stuck in it. Then I would try to sleep, and I'd be turning around on the bed and constantly laying on my hair, and pulling it. And I didn't even want to ever shower, because it takes so long to dry the damn thing. It was not fun. I really sympathize with guys who have long hair. 

PH: What was the biggest challenge for you with Rock Star? 

MW: Everybody was telling me like that it's not going to work. You know, that people know you as a rapper, so you're not going to be believable as a rocker, so that was a bit of a challenge to me. I was like, 'Okay.' And I just felt like I could pull it off. I had hung out with a lot of these guys, so I knew that if I put the work in, I could do it. I just felt like I could, so it was cool. But the script for Rock Star had a heart to it that I hadn't seen in movies for a while, you know? 

PH: Were those ritualistic rock world orgy scenes in the movie true to life? 

MW: Hah! I didn't really get to experience that kind of stuff while I was making music. It wasn't that kind of crowd. But... you know, I tried to get it goin' every once in a while! I think there are some guys living that life, and other guys just trying to portray that image. They put that out there, because that's what is cool. 

PH: How much of that was your own singing in Rock Star? 

MW: I don't know, I'd have to really pay attention to just that. But I studied with a vocal coach for six months, for a number of reasons. I just felt like it was important. You know, we were performing live and stuff, and we wanted to go out there and do it. But what they decided to dub was not up to me -- and it was certainly fine with me. I think it ended up being like thirty percent me, but you gotta get up there, you know? 

And I had a problem with my vocal cords when I was doing The Perfect Storm, so it was important for me just to make sure that I could get through the shoot because you're talking about fourteen hours a days of performing nonstop. So... 

PH: What happened with your voice in The Perfect Storm? 

MW: Well, I had a polyp on my vocal cord. They were actually going to try to remove it surgically, but I started to work with this vocal coach early on, and he was able to make it go away completely. 

PH: How did he perform that particular miracle? 

MW: Through ridiculous vocal exercises that were very embarrassing. And I swore that somebody, like probably George Clooney, was going to come out there with a camcorder because the coach got me sitting in a room with this keyboard, doing these ridiculous exercises. But it helped... 

PH: Did your role in Rock Star summon up any flashbacks of yourself in your early musical career? 

MW: It did, but this is a different world. You're talking about rock 'n roll. My audience consisted of like 13-year-old girls, and their parents and 40-year-old guys. It wasn't, you know, at all like the rock world! It was a totally different ball game. 

PH: What about the celebrity side of both experiences? 

MW: Well, there's the freedom to goof off. I mean, you're constantly going crazy, and could get away with it. Like I've always talked about the discipline that comes along with acting, and how helpful it's been to me in other aspects of my life because I was going crazy, and nobody cared. You know, as long as I was selling records, it didn't matter. And I was very destructive. 

PH: Is that the dirty little secret of the music industry, that as long as you're selling records, that's all they care about? 

MW: Yeah, but it's no secret. I mean, they don't care. And if you drive yourself into the ground, then you gotta sell more records. 

PH: What about that world as it plays out in this movie? 

MW: Well, they try to drive you into the ground, too. But in a different way, you know? 

PH: Was it hard to keep from just going off and getting drunk? 

MW: Yes and no. I'm from Boston, so when it comes down to drinking and stuff, just as long as there's a bathroom around... But like with Bonham, Bonham is tough. And Zakk Wylde is hardcore. But no, it was cool. Hey, I got through The Perfect Storm with the fishermen, so by the time I got to the rock world, I was ready to go. 

PH: I hear you. Did you do your own stunts, like falling off that stage? 

MW: Oh yeah. We actually performed a concert. We opened for White Snake, Great White Wasp and Megadeath. It was at the L.A. Sports Arena. It was either that, or trying to get 20,000 extras. So, we decided to shoot this real concert with like ten or fifteen cameras and I actually did the fall. I had like a tube of blood in my pocket, and I squirted the blood all over me. And the audience was completely taken by it, they thought it was for real! Until the second time... 

When I came out the second time to do Take Two, they were like, 'Whoa man, what is goin' on?' And then they started getting upset, man, because you know, they were there to see Megadeath and all these bands. But now they're realizing that we're making a movie, and we keep repeating the same songs. And it was really petrifying for Jason Flemyng, who plays Bobby Beers. He had never been on stage before, right? He's an English actor, and theater-trained, so he was drunk before he had even gone on. And he had only gotten through like half a song, and they were just throwing stuff at him. So, they yanked him off the stage. 

PH: Since George Clooney was the executive producer, was he on the set a lot? 

MW: George showed up a couple of times, like when all the girls were around. 

PH: So did George develop a different kind of relationship with you, as maybe an authority figure, or more bossy? 

MW: Well, George the actor was counting on you to make him look good, so George the actor is very nice. But George the producer is just like, 'Whatever, man.' Like he was trying to get Brad Pitt to stay in the movie. He didn't even want me to play the part. You know, it was like Brad is a bigger star. 

And I would tell him, 'George, I can play this part. I'm not scared, let's go.' But he would say, 'Oh no, you know Brad has been attached for a while now. Can't do that to him.' So no, George as a producer is not a nice guy. I won't work with him anymore as a producer. 

PH: How insulted were you? 

MW: You know, I've dealt with worse. So... it's all fine. 

PH: How do you face up to rejection like that? 

MW: It wasn't like I felt rejection because obviously at the end of the day, I got the part and I played the role. But it's like that with every aspect of life. Like if you ask a girl out, there's a good chance she's gonna say no. And an even better chance if it's me! You know, because of my bad reputation. 

But I try not to deal with that kind of stuff much. I'm only really working with people who are interested in working with me and I've been very fortunate that there are a lot of interesting people out there who do want to work with me. But I've never really not gotten a part that I didn't want, or that I didn't feel like I was right for, you know? 

PH: Why do you think Brad dropped out? 

MW: I don't know. When we threatened his life, I think! But seriously, it was just a long drawn out process with Brad. 

PH: You've never really carried a big movie by yourself before. Has it changed your life? 

MW: The thing that changed for me, is these friggin' guys in white vans with cameras following me around. It was literally that Monday after the movie came out, with these guys in white vans following me around. Trying to take pictures of me, like eating a cheeseburger. It's ridiculous. 

PH: How do you deal with them? 

MW: What do you want me to do, go after them with a knife? What am I gonna do? I just say, 'Please, there's nothing interesting going on here. I'm sure you can find Pamela Anderson topless somewhere, if you just look hard enough.' 

PH: Now that you've tasted stardom for real, and also as the character in this movie, what's new and different for you? 

MW: It doesn't get any better, but I have less freedom now. And you get offered a lot more money, but scripts are bad. 

PH: There's a line in the movie about the men buying the tickets to the shows because their girlfriends like the rock stars. Do you think it works that way with movie tickets too? 

MW: I think if you're going to the movies with your girlfriend, she's the one picking the movie. You know, she's probably sick of stupid action movies. So you're getting dragged to like Sleepless In Seattle 4, or something like that. 

PH: But studies have found just the opposite. It's actually the guys who pick the movies. 

MW: Well there you go. What do I know? 
-- Interview by PlanetHollywood.com Special Correspondent Prairie Miller -- 

Nearly everyone dreams of being a rock star. Just put a guitar in any young man's hand and watch his head spin with visions of the fast cars, hot chicks and mad cash that will surely be coming his way. 

But not Mark Wahlberg. 

The star of the aptly named Rock Star, which opens on Friday, never once wanted to be one. 

"I had no interest in it at all. That's why I was so excited to play the part, to see if I could pull it off, " he said. 

Fortunately for Wahlberg, he hung out with enough rock gods during his 'Marky Mark' days, among them Motley Crue's lead singer Vince Neil, to know the drill. Nonetheless, when it came time to prepare for the role of Chris Cole, the office supply salesman (and part-time singer in a Steel Dragon cover band) who by a twist of fate becomes the leader singer for the real Steel Dragon, Wahlberg immersed himself in rock god culture. 

"I just took a crash course. I went and hung out with all of these guys," he says. " I was researching the part pretty early on, actually in the middle of shooting Perfect Storm. I just went to as many concerts as I could and hung out with these guys." 

And what a life it is, the rock star way. It's very different from being a movie star, at least from Wahlberg's perspective. 

"It's the complete opposite," he says. "You know, rock stars get away with murder, just about, doing whatever they want. Actors are so busy lying and trying to portray some image, the littlest thing [they do] becomes such a big deal." 

Musicians, Wahlberg says, are more open and truthful than actors in real life. "It's expected, so they push it to the limit." 

So what does that say about a former rapper, turned underwear model, turned actor, who plays a rock god? 

He's definitely acting.
To look the part, the Hollywood hunk let his hair grow for about a year and a half, and with the help of some extensions, really looks the part. But "it was very uncomfortable," he says of the long mane, which he's since lost. 

He's definitely singing. He thinks.
Well, some of it. Which parts, not even Wahlberg knows. 

"I'd have to listen [to the singing in the movie] closely. I studied with the vocal coach for six months, but we also had somebody else who sang the songs. But whenever we performed, we performed live, so--I'd have to pay attention to [the songs]. If I could hit them all [the notes], it would only be my voice." 

He's still tight with the 'Funky Bunch.' And there's a rap scene in "Rock Star."
One of the Steel Dragon songs sounds kind of like a rap, see? And as Wahlberg tells us, "[the film was set in] the late '80s, actually coming up on the '90s--and rap was pretty big at that time. You know, Aerosmith had done their thing with Run DMC. This is a song that they actually tried to push me into recording for the soundtrack, doing a video of it. That whole corny thing." 

But recording again, either with or without the 'Bunch,' isn't really "in the cards." 

"For me to go and make a record and be on MTV with the Backstreet Boys--it just doesn't seem like it makes any sense to me. It seems like a lifetime ago. Not that I have anything against that. It's better than a lot of other stuff that kids are listening to." 

And as for the underwear…
Well, he's still wearing them. 

"When I could get them on underneath the pants I would definitely," he revealed. "Leather is a bit uncomfortable." 

No word on the brand. 

Rock Star, directed by Steve Herek, stars Wahlberg, Jennifer Aniston, Timothy Olyphant, Jason Flemyng, Timothy Spall and Dominic West. The movie opens Friday, Sept. 7. 

Hollywood.com staff writers Ellen Kim and Erika Gimenes contributed to this report. 

One of the most impressive — and annoying — features of contemporary American popular culture is its ability to recycle its own waste products, to regard the trash and ephemera of earlier eras with affection and nostalgia. "Rock Star," a loose, happy-go-lucky mélange of VH1 rockumentary and rags-to-riches melodrama, tries to do for the bad arena rock of the mid-1980's what "Almost Famous" did for the bad arena rock of the previous decade.

And why not? Second-generation metal bands like Def Leppard, Motley Crue and Judas Priest, the real- life models for the fictitious British metal band Steel Dragon in "Rock Star," were beloved by millions in their day, and it is the uncritical, giddy love their music inspired, rather than the music itself, that this movie celebrates.

Directed by Stephen Herek from a script by John Stockwell, "Rock Star" is based on the improbable true story, first told in the Arts & Leisure section of The New York Times, of a die-hard fan hired to replace the rock star he idolized. Chris Cole (Mark Wahlberg), a copy- machine repairman, lives with his parents in a modest house in Pittsburgh (also the hometown of the heroine in "Flashdance"), where his mother runs a day care center. He is devoted to his girlfriend, Emily Poule (Jennifer Aniston), but his real passion is Steel Dragon, whose lead singer he impersonates in a tribute band called Blood Pollution.

Chris's perfectionism alienates his bandmates, who hire the frontman from a rival tribute band, Black Babylon, to replace him. But then one day the phone rings, as it did for the aspiring rock journalist in "Almost Famous," and Chris and Emily find themselves in a tacky baroque Los Angeles mansion, where Chris has been summoned to audition to replace the man he had spent so much of his life imitating. 

Like the more complex, better- written "Almost Famous," "Rock Star" is most insightful when it explores the gulf that separates stars and fans, who nonetheless depend on each other.

The first section of the movie captures the anarchic joy and obsessive enthusiasm of metal god-worship with the same fidelity that it brings to the music itself. Steel Dragon's songs, full of airbrushed power chords, heavy artillery drumming and caterwauling vocals, fit in seamlessly with the soundtrack's actual big-hair and spandex anthems. (And no wonder: they were composed and performed by musicians with unimpeachable pop-metal bona fides, including Zakk Wylde, Ozzy Osbourne's former lead guitarist; Jeff Pilson, the bassist from Dokken and Dio; and Jason Bonham, son of the late Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham and a veteran pounder in his own right.)

When Chris hears this music — and he knows every word and guitar riff — he is vicariously transported into a world of celebrity and sexual power. Once he crosses over, though, he's in danger of being corrupted, not so much by unlimited access to sex, drugs and stardom as by the cynical, businesslike attitude that governs the manufacture of rock-star glamour. As a member of Steel Dragon, Chris — renamed Izzy and speaking, at least some of the time, in a fake Cockney accent — is part of an enterprise that survives by manipulating people like himself.

Chris's rise to stardom is followed, as you might expect, by a moral fall. He and Emily are initiated into the ways of rock 'n' roll decadence at an after-hours party followed by a hotel- room orgy on the night of his triumphant debut. The next morning, after Emily wakes up in a room full of naked strangers, the movie seems to lose its bearings and settles into a story so predictable that the filmmakers can barely summon the resources to tell it.

A calendar appears on the screen along with a montage of bus travel, hotel-trashing and onstage pyrotechnics, and then, after more than six months on the road, Emily abruptly announces that she's leaving. We are meant to understand that Chris has changed from a sweet, ordinary guy into a self-absorbed, dissolute diva, but we never actually witness the transformation. The inevitable next stage, in which he comes to his senses, takes a good look at himself and decides what's really important, is rubber-stamped onto the movie rather than arising plausibly from the character's situation.

This is a shame, but hardly a surprise: "Rock Star" represents the usual victory of simplistic screenwriting conventions over the rich, gamy ambiguities of the subject. But while its slide into perfunctory storytelling dilutes the raw, silly spectacle of sex and noise, the movie still has enough wit and insight to make it worth watching.

Mr. Wahlberg never overplays, and he manages to make Chris seem at once inarticulate and sly. Ms. Aniston delivers bursts of sarcasm to liven up an underwitten role, and Timothy Spall, as Steel Dragon's louche, amiable road manager, is charming and sleazy. Mr. Stockwell and Mr. Herek balance mockery with affection: they acknowledge both the visceral power of the music and its absurdity. In one witty scene, Chris is shocked to learn that his long-haired, snake-hipped idol — the man he has spent countless hours trying to be — not only wears a wig but also is gay. "Have you ever listened to the lyrics to `Stand Up?' " the singer asks, naming Chris's favorite song.

There is also some wit, presumably intentional, in the casting of Mr. Wahlberg, who began his own climb to celebrity as a bare-chested white hip-hopper, in the role of a long- haired headbanger. At one point, fed up with his bandmates, Chris steps into a recording booth and declaims one of their new anthems in rapid- fire metal-rap style, as if he had stepped into a time machine and sampled Korn or Limp Bizkit. (Later, in the outtake reel, Mr. Wahlberg leans into the camera and does a brief Puff Daddy impression.)

The movie's version of pop-music history, though, wanders off in another direction. At about the same moment that Mr. Wahlberg's real self is fronting the Funky Bunch (and playing a character called Marky Mark), his fictitious alter ego trims his metal mane, trades in his leather and spandex for a ratty brown sweater, and fronts what looks like a Pearl Jam tribute band. Actually, he's living out the dream of performing his own material. 

Meanwhile, Emily has, it seems, opened a coffee bar in Seattle (just like the one where her character Rachel works on "Friends!"). And all of a sudden, the nostalgia in "Rock Star" changes key, and we are looking back wistfully on the early 90's, when the artifice and excess of the previous decade were supposedly swept away on a tide of espresso and grungy authenticity. Yes, those were the days.

"Rock Star" is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). It has sex, drugs and some pretty bad rock 'n' roll.

NEW YORK--(ENTERTAINMENT WIRE)--Sept. 7, 2001-- Are you born to rock? Prove it with Rock Star Karaoke (http://rockstarkaraoke.oddcast.com), the new singing game where you get to perform and recreate cool tunes from the new movie Rock Star, starring Mark Wahlberg and Jennifer Aniston. 

For the first time ever, film and music fans alike can interact with their favorite stars in ways never before imagined. Rock Star Karaoke is a customized application of Oddcast's Karaoke Station (www.oddcast.com), the first Internet Karaoke application where fans can record their own voices and send their performances by email and post them at the Rock Star movie site (http://rockstarmovie.com) 

``This is a perfect example of the potential the marriage of technology and content can have,'' said Adi Sideman, co-founder and CEO of Oddcast. ``For all the wanna-be's out there, this is their chance to prove, like Wahlberg's character, that they have what it takes to be a rock star.'' 

Chris Cole (MARK WAHLBERG) was born to rock. His longtime girlfriend Emily (JENNIFER ANISTON) believes Chris's talent could take him all the way but instead of writing his own music, Chris worships at the altar of Bobby Beers, the fiery frontman for Steel Dragon, the heavy metal rock legends that both inspire and consume his life. 

By day, Chris still lives at home with his parents and spends his days repairing copy machines, push-starting his sputtering Dodge Dart and fighting with his brother. But when Chris takes the stage, all of that disappears. When he's fronting Blood Pollution, Pennsylvania's premiere Steel Dragon tribute band, Chris Cole is Bobby Beers -- mesmerizing audiences with his perfect imitation of Beers' electrifying vocals and sexy snarl. Blood Pollution's low-rent recreation of the Dragon's elaborate arena shows drive the locals (including Chris's loving parents and amused choir director) into a head-banging, hair-whipping frenzy. 

The night his bandmates boot him out of the group he founded, Chris is devastated -- until an unexpected phone call changes his life forever: he, Chris Cole, has been tapped to replace Bobby Beers as the lead singer of Steel Dragon. In an instant, Chris rockets to the dizzying heights of sudden stardom, rising from devotee to icon, from the ultimate rock fan to the ultimate rock god -- the wanna-be who got to be. 

``We're so excited to be working with the Warner Bros. team,'' added Sideman. ``With Rock Star Karaoke, we've created a way for fans to actually create programming and content. It's a great way to give something back to the fan, who perhaps can be the wanna-be who got to be.'' 

This landmark web-based karaoke application allows rockers to listen to the original artist version and record their own rendition by following the on screen lyrics and using their PC microphone. Once they save their performance, they can send it to their friends by email and post it to the Rock Star site. Singers can also upload their own photo to be featured next to their musical creations. 

About Oddcast 

Headquartered in NYC, Oddcast specializes in software applications that allow end-users or web administrators to design and publish interactive multimedia such as music video clips, virtual hosts, karaoke songs among others. 

The Oddcast platform enables media companies to realize revenue or enhance marketing without waiting for broadband, by delivering the interactive experience via dial-up Internet connections. The applications are also fully scalable to broadband. Moreover, Oddcast applications originate on the Web, but can be played back via telephone, television, game console or PDA. For more information visit www.oddcast.com. 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact: 

     Trylon Communications Inc. for Oddcast
     Harrison Wise, 212/725-2295
     [email protected]

Reunions are always awkward, and we hate how mousse and dyed hair look on men of a certain age. So we cringed Tuesday night as aging head-bangers relived their glory days at the Westwood premiere of "Rock Star," a George Clooney-produced film starring Mark Wahlberg as a fan-turned-star and Jennifer Aniston as his manager girlfriend.

Poison lead singer Bret Michaels and drummer Rikki Rockett yakked about the good ol' days; in the present, their summer revival tour was canceled after bassist Bobby Dall suffered a spinal cord injury on stage. Deborah "Don't call me Debbie" Gibson pitched her latest album and Kiss icons Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley wore expensive-looking suits instead of platforms, codpieces and makeup. Stanley assured us that Wahlberg, a former New Kid on the Block, could pull off the role of rock god. "For Anthony Hopkins to be convincing as Hannibal Lecter, he didn't have to eat anybody," Stanley said.

Speaking of meaty roles, Wahlberg said his turn as Chris Cole gave him an ear for Led Zeppelin. He called Clooney "the easiest boss I've ever had." For a concert scene, director Stephen Herek put Wahlberg and his fictional band, Steel Dragon, onstage at the L.A. Sports Arena last summer before 10,000 Metallica and Megadeth fans, who wound up in the movie. Aniston, who took the role after her old man, Brad Pitt, turned down the lead, was obviously nervous as newsies barraged her with questions. She said Pitt kept her calm in the car. Once there, however, Pitt darted into the theater, presumably to avoid upstaging his wife. Aniston could have used the hand-holding. She told reporters, "I'll be good once, you know, it's dark. And it's over."

The film, touted as "the story of a wannabe who got to be," is based loosely on the story of an office supply salesman who replaced Judas Priest lead singer Rob Halford in 1996.

Mark Wahlberg has distanced himself from his Marky Mark-Calvin Klein pants-dropping days, but a lucky audience Wednesday night at the Metreon got an eyeful of his toned torso -- clad in leather, no less -- in the new movie "Rock Star." 

"I was comfortable (going shirtless) because I had all that hair," he said at the W Hotel party after the New Yorker Film Series screening. Wahlberg's long, poufy heavy-metal 'do in the movie is mostly extensions, though he grew his own mane for a year and a half for the role.

Wahlberg, in town for about a second before hopping the red-eye to New York, looked airport-ready in sweater, T-shirt, jeans and work boots. He called his current hairstyle "a mess," doffing his baseball cap to reveal a cropped and slightly mussed look. 

"Rock Star's" backstage Betties and artfully trashed hotel rooms are a far cry from Wahlberg's own days touring with the Funky Bunch, he says. 

"I tried to create that, but my audience was 13-year-old girls and their mothers," he said. "And maybe one 40-year-old guy who came to see me in my underwear." 

The "Planet of the Apes" star had trouble deciding which were scarier -- groupies or apes. "That's a tough one," he said. "I would have to say apes. Especially ("Planet" villain) Tim Roth." 

Wahlberg chatted at the party with San Francisco's Stephan Jenkins, the Third Eye Blind front man who plays his untalented singing rival in "Rock Star, " which opens today. Jenkins says the movie got the excesses of the road just right. He admits to having indulged in a few of those excesses, but says he stopped short of destroying hotel rooms. 

"I have too much respect for working people. I couldn't do that to the maids." 

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - For moviegoers, the fall season is supposed to be when Hollywood ushers more dramas into theaters and fewer of the high-octane action flicks of summer.

But past patterns don't always hold true, especially in Hollywood.

For this first week of the new season, the studios hope to rock theaters with four debuts led by the high-profile ``Rock Star,'' swashbuckling ``The Musketeer,'' frightening ``Soul Survivors'' and flirtatious ``Two Can Play at That Game.''

Sounds an awful lot like summer.

``Rock Star'' centers on young Chris Cole (Mark Wahlberg), the front man for a local metal band that plays cover tunes of a major touring act, Steel Dragon. When Cole is plucked from obscurity to sing for Steel Dragon, it seems to be the answer to his dreams, but is really the start to a host of problems.

``Be careful what you wish for'' is the basic message, said Jennifer Aniston, who plays Cole's girlfriend Emily. She called the movie: ``a fun, rock-n-roll, popcorn-type movie.''

The story for ``Rock Star'' was cooked up after its producers read about the real-life experience of Tim ``The Ripper'' Owens, singer in a small-time metal band before being hired by Judas Priest after Rod Halford left the group in the early 1990s.

The director and writer, however, point out that the movie is a fictional account of what it's like to go on tour with a major metal band and the lessons to be learned from doing so.

That's to say, lessons learned from the usual rock-n-roll stuff in the R-rated film: sex and drugs, alcohol and idol worship.

In another vein, Hollywood's notorious for copying good ideas and remaking them with a new spin, and PG-13-rated ``The Musketeers'' unabashedly follows that approach.

Promotional material for the film says it ``weds the classic swordplay and chivalry'' of ... 'The Three Musketeers' with the gravity-defying dazzle of Hong Kong action choreography.''

In other words, ``Musketeers'' meets ``Crouching Tiger.''

FRESH IDEAS, HOLLYWOOD STYLE

Relative unknown Justin Chambers portrays the swaggering swordsman D'Artagnan who travels to 17th century Paris to join up with the king's elite guard -- the Royal Musketeers.

Once there, he finds treachery in the form of Cardinal Richelieu (Stephen Rea) and his henchman Febre (Tim Roth), love in the form of chambermaid Francesca (Mena Suvari) and loyalty from the musketeers as they band together to save the crown.

One for all and all for one! Now, that's a new theme!

Here's another one under the heading, ``Hollywood Fresh.'' Guy and girl are happily in love until girl catches guy stepping out, mistakenly, with girl No. 2. The chance encounter sets into motion a series of events in which guy and girl stake out the rules of love in the age-old battle of the sexes.

That is the basic story in ``Two Can Play That Game'' with Vivica A. Fox as the girl and Morris Chestnut as the guy.

The marketing hook is that the story is told from a female point-of-view. But Writer/director Mark Brown made much the same film in ``How to be a Player'' from a male perspective, wrote critic Robert Koehler of industry paper ``Daily Variety.''

In his review, Koehler said the new incarnation has ``a bit more style and energy ... Underneath, though, it is the same unfunny game all over again.''

That leaves moviegoers with ``Soul Survivors,'' from the producer team of Neal Moritz and Stokely Chaffin who brought audiences the horror flicks, ``I Know What You Did Last Summer'' and ``I Still Know What You Did Last Summer.''

The horror movie stars newcomer Melissa Sagemiller as a college freshman, Cassie, who is injured in a car accident that takes the life of her boyfriend Sean (Casey Affleck).

Following the crash, Matt (Wes Bentley), Annabel (Eliza Dushku) and Annabel's goth friend Raven (Angela Featherstone) steer Cassie into a life that celebrates the netherworld. It's up to ghostly visits from soulmate Sean to help guide Cassie back from the darkside.

Sounds a little like 1999's ``The Sixth Sense'' or even last year's ``Stir of Echoes,'' and producer Chaffin will admit it, but he adds that because of its young stars, ``there's nothing really like it.'' He is, after all, the producer.

NEW YORK (AP) - Jon Bon Jovi doesn't need to see ``Rock Star'' to know how it'll fare at the box office - he thinks moviegoers will tune it out. 

``Because it's 'Behind the Music' on a movie,'' the lead singer of Bon Jovi said Thursday night in the green room at the MTV Video Music Awards. 

In the movie, which opens Friday, Mark Wahlberg plays a heavy metal fan who becomes the lead singer of his favorite band. 

Mark Wahlberg is ``a great actor. But those stories are not old enough to be unique and they're probably told in a trivial way,'' Bon Jovi said. ``I haven't seen it, but it's there on TV every day, 24-7. My prediction, one nice week and it's over.'' 

Bon Jovi, who presented an award at the ceremony, was happy to see another rock star in the green room: Kid Rock. 

``I just met Kid Rock,'' he said. ``You meet people that you wouldn't ordinarily meet. ... He's a fan, he's a friend, he's a nice man.'' 

HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - With a movie titled ``Rock Star,'' starring hot actor Mark Wahlberg, it's not hard to figure out that Warner Bros. would want the MTV audience lining up at the box office when it opens Friday.

Trouble is the picture's R rating has greatly limited their access to a major musically inclined audience.

Warner Bros. can't market the picture during programming blocks featuring more than 35% of viewership under age 17, according to the movie industry's recent pledge to politicians outraged by the studios' dubious promotional tactics.

``That's pushed us into using only the latest programming hours on MTV, as its audience continues to skew younger,'' Warners marketing chief Brad Ball said Thursday.

Loosely based on the true story of a tribute-band singer tapped to replace the lead vocalist of metal band Judas Priest in 1996, ``Rock Star'' was originally called ``Metal God.''

That was changed to the current title to ``generic-ize'' the picture, Ball said. Similarly, its commercials and posters emphasize scenes in which Wahlberg is seen striking decidedly non-metalhead poses.

``Mark has continued to rise in his star power,'' Ball said. ``So, we show Mark not so much onstage but more in his quest to follow his dream.''

Wahlberg was among presenters during Thursday's MTV Music Video Awards.

Warners used MTV's older-skewing sibling network VH1 to run primetime spots and a promo contest for ``Rock Star.''

The film opens in 2,525 theaters as the first post-summer frame's only saturation-level release.

LOS ANGELES (The Hollywood Reporter) --- Strange boxoffice bedfellows: classic literature and the MTV generation.

Universal's "The Musketeer," based on Alexandre Dumas' novel "The Three Musketeers," and Warner Bros.' "Rock Star," a rags-to-riches tale of sudden success in the music business, are the new wide releases hoping to score with audiences this weekend. "Musketeer" should skewer "Star" in their direct duel because its prerelease profile is more promising by far. "Star," in fact, has failed to establish a foothold in the marketplace despite the targeted appeal to young people of its cast and subject matter.

Sony's "Two Can Play That Game" also opens in broad issue today. Playing in a much more constrained release pattern than "Musketeer" and "Star," "Game" will draw primarily from the black community, where it should perform productively.

Mark Wahlberg plays the lead character in "Star," a working stiff moonlighting as lead singer of a heavy metal tribute band when the big time comes calling. Jennifer Aniston is his love interest in the fact-based feature directed by Stephen Herek. Anthony Stewart Head, Timothy Olyphant and Dominic West co-star.

Older women are the only segment indicating measurable interest. That more teenagers are involved with hip-hop music than old-fashioned rock 'n' roll is probably why the under-18 set has turned a deaf ear to "Star." The film's R rating also will inhibit attendance by teenagers, arguably the most productive patrons.

"Musketeer" stars Justin Chambers as D'Artagnan, youngest of the swashbuckling swordsmen who in this telling are out to avenge the murder of his parents. Mena Suvari, Catherine Deneuve, Tim Roth and Stephen Rea co-star in the Peter Hyams-directed period piece.

Mature men are the most interested sector, but all groups save young females are suggesting solid support.

Written and directed by Mark Brown, "Game" features Vivica A. Fox and Morris Chestnut as a couple waging a modern war of the sexes. Supporting players include Anthony Anderson, Wendy Raquel Robinson and Tamala Jones. Younger moviegoers are indicating support.

Artisan's "Soul Survivors" debuts in select markets today. Melissa Sagemiller and Casey Affleck star in the horror-thriller about the frightening aftermath of a devastating car accident. Luke Wilson, Wes Bentley, Eliza Dushku and Angela Featherstone co-star in the project written and directed by Steve Carpenter.

The limited-release dance card is full. Paramount Classics' Spanish-language crime drama "Our Lady of the Assassins" plays New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Directed by Barbet Schroeder, the story of the relationship between a gay middle-aged writer and a boy involved in the Colombian drug trade stars German Jaramillo and Anderson Ballesteros.

Lot 47's "L.I.E." opens in New York and Los Angeles. Co-written and directed by Michael Cuesta, the drama set on Long Island, N.Y., follows a parentless 15-year-old who is taken in by a homosexual pedophile.

Five films debut exclusively in New York. Artistic License's "Bounce: Behind the Velvet Rope," written and directed by Steven Cantor, is a documentary examining the violent lives of nightclub doormen.

New Yorker's "Djomeh" is a Farsi-language romantic drama starring Jalil Nazari and Mahbobeh Khalili. Hassan Yektapanah wrote and directed.

Strand's "The Iron Ladies" chronicles the exploits of a volleyball team comprised mainly of transvestites, transsexuals and homosexuals that captured Thailand's national championship in 1996. Youngyooth Thongkonthun directed.

Cowboy's "Vengo," directed by Tony Gatlif, is a musical tribute to flamenco dancing and the gypsy lifestyle. And 7th Art's "Always a Bridesmaid" is a distaff documentary directed by Nina Davenport.