Axl & the movie "The Wrestler" / Axl thanked at the Golden Globe awards

[anythinggoes II]

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Just found this while doing my usual browsing and found a little nugget that interested me, and wondered if anyone had any further knowledge on this matter, all i can add to this is that i do know Mickey Rourke was at the New York aftershow party in 2006, quite possible it has nothing whatsoever to do with it but hey every little helps. Unless its just for using his likeness.

and yes this is posted at another board by myself, im just very curious and hoping someone here knows or knows who to ask

http://www.screendaily.com/ScreenDailyArticle.aspx?intStoryID=40526

A surprisingly conventional storyline from Darren Aronofsky boasts just the right amount of edge ? and, surprisingly, humour ? and a performance Mickey Rourke was born for, making The Wrestler a natural awards contender and audience-pleaser without feeling overtly manipulative on the way.

This Rocky-style drama is always travelling down familiar genre tramlines but never leadenly so. Its pulverised lead character naturally inhabits Aronofsky's New Jersey and the main challenge this film will face is in persuading viewers that they haven't seen it before from The Champ on through to Eastwood's recent Million Dollar Baby. In this, Rourke's engaging, compelling, washed-up 80s wrestling-star hulk will be key; the fact The Wrestler's humour leavens the inevitable slamming sequences also helps.

Banishing memories of The Fountain while softening considerably the grit of Requiem For A Dream, The Wrestler should take Aronofsky into a more commercial marketplace on an international level. While its circus-like wrestling bouts will be a lure in the US, Rourke's international standing as an 80s icon still carries weight in major markets. Exposure and notices should be good: rarely, after all, has a star been so perfectly matched to a role, and the production isn't shy of playing with that (even tantalisingly holding back on the first close-up of his face).

Looking like Axl Rose (The Wrestler makes a special thanks to the Guns 'n' Roses frontman) meets, well, Mickey Rourke, Randy 'The Ram' Robinson (Rourke) was a champion professional wrestler in the 80s. Now, two decades later, he stacks shelves in a local supermarket's warehouse and makes some cash performing pantomime-like fights in local schools and gyms for wrestling fans. It soon becomes clear, however, that these aren't just money-making arrangements for the shattered ex-champ ? the ring is the only place of comfort to him in a world he finds bewildering. Certainly, they don't make him enough money to pay the rent on his grim trailer, although he manages to find the cash to pay for private dances from stripper Cassidy/Pam (Tomei).

Randy, born Robin Ramzinski, a name he hates, is alone in the world and the film is intelligent enough not to foist sequences on the viewer explaining why. Every setback in life sees him look to the ring and his green spangly tights for succour; it is his addiction and his only friend. Hard of hearing and with a mangled face and frame, he subjects his body to epic batterings, not to mention performance-enhancing drugs, until he has to face the fact he needs to stop. His attempts to reconnect with the outside world are hard, though, especially with estranged daughter Stephanie (Wood).

Unlike many similar characters in the same ex-champ genre, The Ram never actively looks for the viewer's pity, and the pathos element is played down. Tomei delivers a solid performance as ageing stripper Cassidy who wants out of the game and although her earlier sequences, in particular one where she talks about The Passion of the Christ, feel abridged, the character does eventually come into its own. The humour in the sequence where she and The Ram talk about the eighties is deliciously played, and the film's score is amusingly and knowingly referential (Bruce Springsteen, of course, plays it out).

What viewers haven't seen before in this genre is the professional wrestling element and Aronofsky and his team (eight credited stunt co-ordinators) deliver just the right amount of action here. Never mocking and allowing the humour of the sport to show while also illustrating some of its brutality, these feature former real-life champions opposite Rourke, who, of course, had his own well-publicised flirtation with boxing back in the day.

Production companies
Protozoa Pictures
Wild Bunch

International sales
Wild Bunch
(33) 6 11 91 23 93

Producers
Scott Franklin
Darren Aronofsky

Screenplay
Robert Siegel

Cinematography
Maryse Alberti

Production design
Tim Grimes

Editor
Andy Weisblum

Main cast
Mickey Rourke
Marisa Tomei
Evan Rachel Wood
Mark Margolis
Todd Barry
Wass Stevens

[anythinggoes II]

Ah found my answer http://www.slashfilm.com/2008/02/12/video-footage-mickey-rourke-in-darren-aronofskys-the-wrestler/



This weekend they shot footage for Darren Aronofsky?s The Wrestler at an independent pro-wrestling show (Combat Zone Wrestling) show at the infamous ECW Arena in South Philadelphia. They filmed Mickey Rourke as down and out wrestling legend Randy ?The Ram? Robinson enter the ring to Sweet Child of Mine by Guns ?N Roses (a song which was written into the script). They also filmed the entrance of The Ram?s opponent and a bit where The Necro Butcher and Rourke?s stunt double brawl in the audience. Watch some fan-shot handheld footage of Darren Aronofsky setting up a shot of The Ram leaving at the conclusion of the wrestling match, after the jump.

[cineater]

Sorry can't answer that but this is like the 3rd westler contected to GNR.  It's an alarming trend I'd like to say something about but I'm afraid I'd get the shit beat out of me. 

On the other hand, well built, although sweaty, men as oppossed to female stripers is a lot more entertaining from my point of view.  Thank you GNR, may I have another.

[Voodoochild]

There's a review of this movie here (in portuguese):

http://jbonline.terra.com.br/extra/2008/09/05/e050910199.html

They say something like:

"With a magnificent soundtrack, marked by Guns N' Roses '80s rock, the movie was applauded by the critcs"

[willow]

I don't even know what to say about all this Wrestler stuff coming about. I guess they just know a great band when they hear one! lol

[Rockin' Rose]

Apparantly the movie just won a Golden Lion for the best film at the Venice film festival.

[FunkyMonkey]

 

"The Wrestler," at its best, focuses on Randy's desperate attempts to take control of his life, and how the magic allure of Guns 'N' Roses tragically pulls him back into the ring. The film falters, however, in attempting to round out Randy's character with a rushed drama involving a long estranged daughter (Evan Rachel Wood) and a brief romance, handled somewhat better, with a stripper-cum-mom (played by Marisa Tomei). We've seen much of this before -- once renegade, now over-the-hill protagonist tries to reconcile with his past and present (there's one effective, direct nod to "Raging Bull"). But in its evocative depressed New Jersey milieu and Rourke's sad tour-de-force performance as a man literally bloodied and beaten down, "The Wrestler" is a strong and intimate work that should go far.

http://www.indiewire.com/movies/2008/09/toronto_08_crit_2.html

[GNRVahland]

Sorry can't answer that but this is like the 3rd westler contected to GNR.  It's an alarming trend I'd like to say something about but I'm afraid I'd get the shit beat out of me. 

More things in common / simular :

Mickey Rourke made a comeback after 15 years    (and / or his character made a comeback..... I don't know that; Can someone inform me about that ?)

[Jonx]

According to Axl, Rourke is the biggest Guns fan out there! Makes sense given the subject of the film and Rourke's sudden career change in the late 80s!

Jonx

[italysfinest1985]

How did Axl Rose get a special "thank you" credit?

Well, we played "Sweet Child o' Mine," I don't know, maybe three or four hundred times during the course of the film. Mickey's very good friends with Axl, and Axl was instrumental in helping us to secure "Sweet Child o' Mine" for the climax of the film.

Somewhat related to that, in ode to the barroom scene where Rourke and Tomei gush over their favorite '80s bands, do you have any '80s guilty pleasures?

I don't know if Guns N' Roses would be quite a guilty pleasure. I was growing up in Brooklyn in the '80s and listening to hip-hop, so all the music I was listening to is still cool. [laughs] I'm not that much of a hip-hop guy now, but I definitely was in high school.


http://www.ifc.com/film/film-news/2008/10/darren-aronofsky-on-the-wrestl.php

[budmaster]

Just got to see this movie the other day  & i have to say that its one of the best movies i've had the pleasure of seeing EVER. I'm pretty sure that it mentions Slash doing some of the original movie score, but i could be wrong.....

Anyway check it out if you have the chance...AMAZING!

[siraddam]

Slash does the guitar playing for the soundtrack to this film, it is some great music! I don't know if it could be related to that!!

[FunkyMonkey]

From an interview with Mickey Rourke...

"When I was boxing I used to come out to 'Sweet Child O' Mine,' so when I was behind [the wrestling] ropes [on set], I needed some extra so I said, 'Put on 'Sweet Child O' Mine,' and take off that shit you're playing'. So I called up Axl [Rose] about the movie and he gave us the song for free."

http://theplaylist.blogspot.com/2008/11/mickey-rourke-scored-darren-aronofsky.html

[Buddha_Master]

What is with SCOM being everywhere all of a sudden? Step Brothers, The Wrestler, The last house on the left trailer. There are so many great GNR songs and arguably better that go unnoticed its a shame. Not taking shit away from SCOM, I sing it to my daughter nightly, but just saying.

[King Axl]

What is with SCOM being everywhere all of a sudden? Step Brothers, The Wrestler, The last house on the left trailer. There are so many great GNR songs and arguably better that go unnoticed its a shame. Not taking shit away from SCOM, I sing it to my daughter nightly, but just saying.

For me, "Sweet Child O' Mine" is the best Guns N' Roses song ever. I played it every single day on my car stereo when I was seventeen back in the summer of 1988. It defined that part of my adolescence like no other song did.

It's a classic song that continues to appeal to new generations, much like the other two Appetite biggies, "Welcome To The Jungle" and "Paradise City".

Great songs will never fade into obscurity.

[Thats_Called_The_Blues]

i assumed he thanked axl for letting them use SCOM for the movie?

[Mighty Mouse]

Maybe this might help explain 

During the making of his latest movie, ?The Wrestler,? the former boxer pulled in a favour from old buddy Axl Rose of seminal 80s rockers  ?Guns N Roses,?  who lent him one of the band?s  songs ?Sweet Child O? Mine?  for the soundtrack of the film.

?Axl Rose is a good friend of mine and actually, when I used to box, I used to come out to ?Sweet Child O? Mine,? but on our $5.5 million budget we couldn?t afford that music so he gave it to me,? said Rourke, ?So that was something really special.?

More here with this link.....

http://screeningroom.blogs.cnn.com/2009/01/06/axl-rose-bruce-springsteen-lend-mickey-rourke-music-for-the-wrestler/

Cheerz

[acompleteunknown]

Really great movie.  Highly recommend it.  Even if you just go to hear the music...you'll have a great time.

[draguns]

I defintely want to see this movie. Not to go off on a tangent, but it seems like wrestling and Guns are intertwined. Hulk Hogan used to listen to Welcome to the Jungle while he was training. ECW used to promote the hell out of GNR songs in the mid-late 90s. Also, I believe Triple H, WWE wrestler, stated that GNR is one of his favorite bands.

[AXL DEMOCRACY]

Very good film.  Rourke is real solid in it.  I am a big fan of the director, Darren Aronofsky - and he does a great job with this film.