Mike Ryan of
Movie Fone recently sat down with Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson for an interview pertaining to Jon M. Chu's
G.I. Joe: Retaliation. The film stars The Rock as Marvin Hinton, or also known as "Roadblock."
Roadblock in the cartoon series was known not only for his incessant rhyming, but also for his culinary skills. As a breathe of fresh air, The Rock's version will pay homage to the character.
But what was important was to pay homage to the character -- in terms of his look, in terms of his culinary skills.
While there was never any discussion about if the character should or should not be rhyming, The Rock did say that his version will have an affinity for poetry, which will act as a modern updating.
And in terms for his love and passion for poetry -- but not necessarily rhyming. It's my interpretation that he loved poetry. Look, we opened up the Super Bowl spot with him quoting Jay-Z -- and that's Roadblock's interpretation of wonderful poetry. So there are a lot of components that we paid homage to. He was not rhyming for the entire movie. Nor does he give body massages...
Dwayne was asked if he was surprised that such a popular character in the Joe Universe wasn't used in the first film.
It almost aligned perfectly that way. And there were a few actors in the first one who could have played Roadblock. A popular character -- the glue of the G.I. Joes. But I'm sure, creatively, Lorenzo and the studio had their reasons for leaving it alone. I mean, they have a knack for thinking well ahead for multiple movies. And I'm glad he wasn't touched. They sent me over a list of possible G.I. Joe characters.
After that reveal, Mike followed up with a question about whom else was on the list.
No one interesting, by the way. I mean, Roadblock was the first one and, after that, it became secondary characters.
Pushed further about the list, he was asked specifically if Blowtorch was a choice and The Rock responded, "It was... I can't even remember, but it was."
Blowtorch is a member of G.I. Joe who is best known for wearing a bright yellow and orange uniform as well as a groovy protective mask. He also has a specific weapon that blows flames, but I forget what they call them.
The most interesting part in all this is that The Rock was clearly brought on board very early in the process. Producers set their sights on him even before knowing which character he'd be playing, making it seem as though Roadblock was written very generically and could be adapted to fit many Joes.
So when the studio came to me with the idea about starring in the movie, they quickly followed that up with, "Here are our ideas of rebooting it: More real, more rooted, more boots-to-the-ground, and a bit darker." So, after sitting down with the studios and the producers -- and Jon Chu, that's very important -- a lot of the variables made it easy for me to say yes.
The Rock also claims that he refused to watch the first movie because he didn't want that film's tone to influence his performance. Yup I wouldn't want that stink on me either. Good Call.
By the way I bet Gung Ho was on that list, and I think that would've been a good fit for The Rock as well.
G.I. Joe Retaliation stars Channing Tatum, D.J. Cotrona, Byung-hun Lee, Ray Park, Adrianne Palicki, Jonathan Pryce, RZA, Ray Stevenson, and will be released on June 29, 2012.