With no experience or coaching, will Nick’s nerves get the best of him when he’s thrust into the world of “Film Junket Interviews” for the first time? Will they actually let him within thirty feet of The Rock?? Will Mark Wahlberg give him the stinkeye??? Those answers and more on this episode of The Screen Junkies Show.

Additionally, FilmDrunk pointed out Mark Wahlberg’s tiny dinosaur arms and now it’s the only thing I see when I look at him. Just like the tooth in the exact center of Tom Cruise’s face.

Now we know.

Because these films make bajillions of money, it only makes sense that The Scorpion King would want in on some more sweet, sweet spin-off action. He recently spoke quasi-enthusiastically to Empire about the probability of a spin-off film starring his character, Luke Hobbs.

“Possibly… after this one. After the next one. Possibly. I’m not quite too sure. I know that’s the goal, and we continue to build that character and have him take shape, form. But yes, can’t wait.”

So nothing set in stone yet. The makers of The Fast and the Furious want to get the character right first.

How awesome is that?! No. Not the picture which The Rock’s assistant found on DeviantArt. The fact that all it takes these days to make a movie is a drawing. That’s incredible. Besides the picture should totally be put in the able hands of Pixar.

The picture in question was drawn by Alex Panagopoulos, a Greek software engineer turned fantasy artist. It features a little girl asleep in bed while a small brown teddy bear — brandishing a laughably small wooden sword and shield — holds an enormous, fanged monster at bay. And in the fashion of a motivational poster, a caption reads “Teddy Bears: Protecting innocent children from monsters under the bed since 1902.”

Hiram Garcia, a former assistant to Johnson, found the illustration and brought it to Flynn’s FlynnPictureCo and New Line. The company, Flynn and Johnson together made the 2012 family adventure movie Journey 2: The Mysterious Island; Garcia was an associate producer on the film, which made nearly $328 million worldwide.

Let’s hope this does well and opens the door for other under-conceived films making it to the screen. Like this one:I’ve been trying to get that bitch into production for five years. (THR)

Other than the comedy stylings of Mark Wahlberg Lite, this trailer gives us a great look at the state of the art weapon Cobra is using to destroy entire countries with. Then by the end we’re given a great look at the state of the art weapon being destroyed. So, yeah, I guess the good guys win. Stay tuned to future trailers to find out about any other major deaths or plot points.

The new trailer focuses mostly on Cobra’s nefarious plot to destroy the world by impersonating the President of the United States (could happen), as well as the remaining Joes and their effort to take back the country and avenge their fallen comrades. The ragtag crew includes The Rock, Bruce Willis, a hot chick, a Latino guy, and various ninjas. One of which is also a hot chick. I hope they succeed. They’re our last hope. Who else can defeat sword-wielding ninjas on a mountainside while the highest office hangs in the balance? Certainly not Dennis Quaid.

Fans of wrestling needn’t just wax nostalgic when it comes to The Rock. Though he’s largely retired from WWE activity, that hasn’t stopped them from subscribing to his “Team Bring It” philosophy. People still love The Rock, and it would appear that they admire him in a way that Ashton Kutcher or Phillip Seymour Hoffman could only dream of. He inspires many people, and while they might not be shouting it from the rooftops, they are certainly bandying about some hashtags to let the Twitterverse know what’s up.

Apparently, if you like WWE star John Cena, then you don’t like The Rock. And if you like The Rock, it’s still ok to like the #justsayin hashtag.

I don’t know if The Rock intended his minions to shirk their academic duties, but that’s something that is happening.

Lest you think that this Hercules film will be a study of Greek mythology, a period piece that examines the infancy of civilization, now’s as good a time as any to mention that Brett Ratner is directing the film and it’s based on a comic book published by Radical Comics.

It’s like Wrath of the Titans meets…Clash of the Titans. Yay!

This project has been kicking around since 2008, when Peter Berg was attached to direct. But art called, so Peter Berg went off to do the Battleship movie with Rihanna, leaving Ratner and The Rock to delight in this film that no one anywhere is excited to see at all.

Next up for The Rock is Pain and Gain from Michael Bay, while next up for Ratner is another semester of sensitivity classes.

But will audiences be able to see him as anything but the Scorpion King?

The Rock is, according to this Variety exclusive, close to signing on, while Wahlberg requires a little more work to fit this into his busy schedule. The film’s budget is supposedly about $20 million, so it will be interesting to see how the stars fit into that, considering the two of these guys could eclipse that number with just their salaries.

While Michael Bay is being courted for Transformers 4, it’s likely that he’ll get after this project next, regardless of whether he signs on for yet another installment of the toy franchise.

In the film, The Rock stars as the owner of a construction company who becomes snitch for the DEA in order to reduce his son’s prison sentence. Bernthal will play his employee, an ex-con who is forced by his boss to introduce him to an underground drug dealer. Bernthal is expected to blink a whole bunch and avoid direct eye contact. Acting!! (Deadline)

However, Wesley Snipes’ character in the Passenger 57 sequel (it will happen, I swear to you) would look at that jump drive and say to himself, “That jump drive needs to be jammed in the eye of the corrupt internal affairs agent. I don’t care if it has all my tax return info on it.”

And that’s why movies rule. I don’t fight as much as I’d like to, but I have been raised to believe that if I did, I would only use my hands, legs, and possibly a bottle or knife. Movies have superseded that presumption with the knowledge that pretty much any object in the world can be turned into a weapon if you hit someone hard enough with it.

And that brings us to where we are right now, a list of the most awesome makeshift weapons in film.

9. Chainsaw – Evil Dead II

This is supposed to be a device for pleasure, not pain.

In Lock, Stock, Hatchet Harry, in a fit of rage…you know what? Let’s allow Jason Statham’s character Bacon tell the story. It helps if you really imagine it in Statham’s voice:

“Harry didn’t think that he did a very good job, so he grabbed the nearest thing to hand, which just so happened to be a 15 inch blac rubber cock, and proceeded to beat poor old Smithy to death with.”

Being beaten with a big black dildo sounds like not only a painful way to go, but an undignified one at that. If I’m to meet my maker at the hands of a pornographer, I pray he uses a Fleshlight.

7. 2×4 – Walking Tall

In both the 1973 original and the 2004 remake, the protagonist sheriff asserts control over a town with only a big-stick in tow. More specifically, that stick is a 2×4, and that protagonist sheriff is modeled after Sheriff Buford Pusser, who actually did fight crime and corruption with a giant stick.

However, if you’re as big as The Rock is, whether or not you have a giant stick is kind of a rounding error.

Cheers for the simplicity of the weapon, jeers for those annoying blisters and splinters.

Bummer. I thought she was cast to play a more mature Salt-like character.

If this pairing sounds amazing to you, a) you’re a weirdo, and b) you shouldn’t get too excited too soon, as Sarandon has a pretty full dance card with I Hate You, Dad, Cloud Atlas, The Company You Keep, and Gently Down The Stream. Snitch would follow those projects, so don’t look for it to start with her for another year or so.

While I was always under the impression that The Simpsons got the proportions of David and Goliath right with their Bart vs. Nelson showdown in the “Simpsons Bible Stories” episode, without CGI or some very impressive lifts, the showdown would be a 6’5″ The Rock against a 5’10″ Lautner. I don’t think the discrepancy is there. I think the smart move here is to surgically remove Lautner’s legs to really play up the difference in size.

No word if they picked The Rock in the hopes that he could bring his old Scorpion King outfits, but I wouldn’t rule it out.

It’s a safe bet that, unless they can stop time, this pilot will be a mid-season replacement or for next fall, as the schedules for this fall have been set and production won’t even come close hitting a late-September deadline. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson will be executive producing rather than surprising, which makes sense.

Though it’s not stated, I would assume that this project would fictionalize the era, rather than try to license the likenesses of all those wrestlers/caricatures that we held/hold so dear. So after years of repairing Arab-American relations, in 2012, we will have some fictionalization of the Iron Sheik to completely shatter that glass.

Also, TUGBOAT!

In other G.I. Joe news, the participation of The Rock has gone from being a foregone conclusion to just a conclusion. He will be playing Roadblock. All you really need to know about Roadblock is that he is enormous and carries a .50 caliber machine gun. Works for me.

The series has essentially gotten a reboot for the sequel after the original didn’t seem to pass muster with fans nor critics. Jon Chu will be taking over helming duties and Channing Tatum will be returning, but the rest of the cast will be new to the franchise.

While it’s not exactly poised for critical acclaim, the sequel certainly sounds more interesting with these recent additions. (THR, Variety)

His muscles won’t save him from his watery fate below. (@therock)

It opens with the prison break suggested at the end of Fast & Furious. Then in Rio, Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker) and Mia Toretto (Jordanna Brewster) go on a run with their old L.A. racer Vince (Matt Schulze). Dominic (Vin Diesel) shows up on the heist, but the deal goes bad and DEA agents get killed. So the feds send in Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) and his boys from the Diplomatic Security Services to bust them.

People make fun of the Fast and Furious movies for being light on plot, but the problem with Fast Five is that there’s too much plot. I should have known something was wrong when they showed the prison break. The stunt is straightforward and not as cool as if it were implied, and it’s got nothing on the pre-title tanker sequence from Fast & Furious.

'Fast Five' Macho Quiz

The first heist has some good moments like ripping open the side of a train for Dom’s grand entrance, and Brian does some Keanu-worthy jumps from/onto moving vehicles. Then they start taking apart the GTO the Brazilian gang was after, because they’re still expert mechanics. Here begins a lot of explanation about a chip and Reyes’s (Joaquim de Almeida) drug money.

Hobbs busts onto the scene with charismatic bravado. He asks a character, “Am I right?” and when she agrees, he replies, “Of cours I am.” He walks through a gang of Brazilian gunmen on pure attitude and tosses official papers aside, because he gets it. This is the job just because it is. A rooftop chase between the DSS, the Brazilians and Dom’s gang balances three elements with complicated movements, but it’s never quite awesome.

From here it’s a solid hour of all exposition. Dom and Brian get the team from previous sequels back together. Roman (Tyrese Gibson) and Tej (Chris “Ludacris” Bridges) help with the technical and Gisele (Gal Gadot) and pre-Tokyo Drift Han (Sung Kang) handle intel. It’s nice to see everyone again but they waste a lot of time on stupid scenes like Roman fast talking a guard. That’s a shame because he was funny in 2 Fast 2 Furious.

6 photosElsa Pataky

Dom maps out Reyes’s entire operation. Then the DSS re-figures it out on their own. Dom and Brian finally go to a street race party, complete with Brazilian T&A, and they skip the race. I get the joke that we just assume they won, but when there’s been no action for a while that’s a flat out failure. THIS is the race you leave implied? Instead we see the crew make practice runs for the heist they’re planning against Reyes.

We finally get a quarter mile race about 80 minutes into the movie. I think they saved all their fury for the climactic sequence, which is good. There’s certainly not enough Hobbs. I appreciate all the talk about family but all those plot scenes weren’t building any character. You do get to see Diesel and The Rock fight, about as cathartic as Jet Li vs. Dolph Lundgren in The Expendables.

Because I was anticipating it so highly, Fast Five becomes my first official disappointment of the summer, and that makes me FURIOUS.

Johnson’s role in the action flick is a far cry from those that have required him to wear fairy wings and soap bubbles. He stars as a blue-collar working class dad on a mission to free his falsely-incarcerated son. That setup could mean we’ll see a more serious, morose Rock than we’ve ever seen before, as the desperation to save his character’s son coul drive him to extreme actions.

As of now, he’s the only cast attached to the film directed by former-stuntman Ric Roman Waugh. We’ll keep you posted when we know who he’ll get revenge on this time. (Deadline)

So how does the original film fit into this universe? It doesn’t. Diesel, who is a surprisingly knowledgeable student of cinema, has decided that while his character is the same from the original, should be viewed in a context of the latter three. As much as any character in TFATF universe can be viewed in a context.

In an interview with Screen Rant, Diesel all but confirms that the sixth installment will take place in Europe.  Great. I’m sure the cast of The Fast and the Furious 6 will do tons to debunk the stereotype of boorish Americans.

The plan was to have Vin release this to his 20 million Facebook fans first, and the Paul Walker, Ludacris, and everyone else would post it to their own pages. Vin always goes first. In trailers and in line for lunch. Dude won’t eat chili mac at room temperature.

Now kiss him.

Universal has released this steamy first pic from their upcoming romantic comedy, Fast Five, starring Vin Diesel and The Rock. Man, can you feel the sexual tension between these two? Move over, You’ve Got Mail!

In the film, The Rock plays a cop trying to take down street racers Diesel Paul Walker, and Tyrese Gibson. But will his car be bad-ass? Yes. His car will be bad-ass. He’ll actually be behind the wheel of Gurkha, which is like the car that Humvees fear. So to recap, Fast Five features The Rock dressed like John Travolta, sweaty men standing nose to nose, and really big Hummers. Did The Fast And The Furious franchise suddenly change demographics? (USA Today)

In my 10+ years of journalism experience, I have found that the best interviews ever are professional wrestlers. Their entire job is public speaking, riling up the crowd. When they get into a more intimate situation, they know exactly how to present their soundbites so they sound like natural conversation and engage you personally.

Dwayne Johnson has been doing this for 10 years himself as a movie star. His latest movie, Faster, is a return to the sort of action we always expected from The Rock. He plays Driver, an ex-con simply out for revenge. He goes after the gang who betrayed him and killed his brother with nary a word, let alone a cute one-liner.

Johnson was a good sport when I tied in Faster with the upcoming Fast Five. The fifth in the Fast and the Furious series pits Johnson against Vin Diesel. He also appreciated my Point Blank reference and told us it’s okay to still call him The Rock. Check out the video below.

The Roc Faster Interview – Watch more Funny Videos

The tough guy movie of the year is here. Faster is all about the characters and attitude, much more so than action. This is how you make a cool movie. It’s not just set pieces. It’s an overall tone.

driver (Dwayne Johnson) gets out of prison and goes on a rampage, shooting people before you even know what’s going on. This is a list movie, where they introduce all the bad guys and then Driver goes through killing them all. That might remind audiences of Kill Bill but to me it harkens back to Point Blank. There’s no watered down “likeability” but it’s full of respect and honor.  The characters accept their role in this story and have their confrontations.

Killer (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) is on Driver’s tail, and Killer is just interested in conquering another quest. He’s already a perfect physical specimen. He just needs a more dangerous game. Cop (Billy Bob Thornton) is on the case, but he’s not a very good cop. Each character speaks to what another character lacks, and it’s a more interesting triangle than usual.

Driver is the best character The Rock has ever played, and that includes The Rock. His actions are so stark before he does pretty much any talking, it just brings us into this story. We don’t have to know Driver’s motivations right away, but we’ve got to stick with him because we’re already in too deep to get out.

I like The Rock, and Johnson is good at comedy too, but it’s cool to see him take a serious badass role. There’s a lot of staring going on. He’s sweaty and gritty. He crosses several lanes of traffic without looking. Of course we know the cars will stop but he doesn’t care. He tosses an interventionist card because he’s not going to talk about his feelings. The Rock is back in action, and better than ever.

George Tillman, Jr. may not have a lot of action set pieces in Faster but he knows how to play visually. His character introductions are completely informative, incorporating behavior and visual cues with slow motion, music and humor. Driver’s reunion with his car is a big deal, even though there’s not really a car chase. There kind of doesn’t have to be, because Driver probably wouldn’t risk his beauty.

Faster brings back all the classic elements that have been missing from movies and takes them to new levels. Driver is one of those miraculous cases of survival who should be dead but he’s back. The hit man is obsessed with excellence and conquering all challenges. There is actually a character close to retirement, and the “one last job” angle has a way different context here. There’s even a gratuitous strip club scene, although they’re all in bikinis. Damn.

The film introduces some new twists too. Real things happen to these characters in between plot points. The deadbeat cop who works too much actually chooses his family in an interesting, still morally ambiguous way. They deal with relationships, addictions, families and religion. Some films throw that in to pretend they have more of a plot, but Faster actually delivers the drama.

I do wonder how all these expert drivers in movies have time to work out and study martial arts too. Learning how to drive that well must take hours and hours behind the wheel every day for your entire life. Those are good skills but you’re still in a seated position. What, you drive for six hours, lift weights for two and do kata before bed?

Faster is just a solid, aggressive thriller. The title might suggest more action than the movie actually delivers, because that’s probably the only way to market it. It’s actually a refreshing minimalist character piece, but man does it propel you through Driver’s anger and Killer’s obsession. Dare I say Faster is also furious? I dare.

Click the sht*t out of these links.

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The Top 10 Coolest Guns in Movies (Ranker)

Michael Caine has admitted on record that the only reason he did Jaws: The Revenge was for the money and the free trip to the Bahamas. "I have never seen it, but by all accounts it is terrible. However, I have seen the house that it built, and it is terrific!" So, there’s not much surprise that he’s agreed to co-star opposite the Rock in the Hawaii-based Journey 2: The Mysterious Island. Plus, he gets to work with Cats & Dogs 2: The Revenge Of Kitty Galore director Brad Peyton. What actor would turn down that opportunity?!

In the film, he’ll portray Josh Hutcherson‘s adventure-seeking granddad who wanders off and winds up on a mysterious island. This will be an action-heavy role for Caine that will see him squaring off against giant bees. If you listen closely, that beeping sound is a dump truck full of money backing up to Oscar-winner Michael Caine‘s terrific house. (THR)