Live blog: Conference call with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson

We promised a live blog of a conference call with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, and we will deliver. The time was changed for technical reasons, but here we are now. What does this have to do with sports? Well, The Rock was a college football player. And of course a pro wrestler. And he plays a hockey player in the upcoming film "Tooth Fairy," which we understand is generating a lot of early Oscar buzz. From the press release (our bold):

The movie was made by noted sports film makers Mark Ciardi and Gordon Gray, who were previously responsible for such high-quality sports films as "Miracle," "Invincible," "The Rookie" and "The Game Plan." "TOOTH FAIRY" stars Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Billy Crystal, Ashley Judd and Julie Andrews. In the film, Johnson plays pro hockey player Derek Thompson. At the outset of his hockey career, Thompson is a highly talented player, but he languishes in the minor leagues. Much to Thompson's professional frustration, he eventually evolves into an enforcer who earns the nickname "Tooth Fairy" for his propensity to knock the teeth out of opposing players. His hockey career and his life change forever when he is magically transported to an audience with the "real" Tooth Fairy (Andrews). As his punishment for being a non-believer, he is "sentenced" to perform the duties of a "real" tooth fairy, which wreaks havoc on his hockey career with the fictional Lansing Ice Wolves.

We will continue to add updates from the call as events warrant. Here we go:

*He had two weeks to learn how to skate/play hockey for this role. There is much use of stunt doubles, harnesses and wires. He's amazed at how little padding hockey players wear and he considers hockey players the "craziest" of all athletes.

*This is his 10th year of acting, and "the goal was to work in as many genres as possible. ... The family genre is one I wanted to get into and was excited to get into."

*That said, he also has an action movie calld "Faster" that's in the works. He compared it to "The Good, The Bad & The Ugly" and also "No Country For Old Men."

*He had never even been on ice before this movie.

*Just had a chance to ask our one and only question. Thanks to everyone who submitted them, but we went with Marthaler's suggestion: At what point during the reading of the script did you just KNOW you had to do this movie? The answer:

"From the moment I heard the idea and the concept, I loved it. ... There have been various versions of this script. You would think 'it's a home run, you have to make it.' But once you get past the cool concept, the story never landed correctly in a powerful way that made sense. When it finally came by my desk, I couldn't let it go." He said Jack Black was considered for the part, but for some reason it fell through. He landed it about two years ago. "I really had the opportunity to do something special, which is presenting our version of the Tooth Fairy to the world." He said he saw the finished product about a month ago and loved it.

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