Both WWE Chairman Vince McMahon and WWE Films producer Joel Simon had long sought to turn Steve Austin into an action film star. One of the best-known and most successful wrestlers of all time, Austin had already proven himself to be a capable actor, having appeared in THE LONGEST YARD opposite Adam Sandler and Chris Rock, and played Detective Jake Cage in the television series "Nash Bridges." But the producers had yet to find the ideal starring vehicle that would ignite Austin's career as a bona fide action star. That is, until Austin himself brought them a script called THE CONDEMNED.
"We thought it was the perfect material to make as his first movie," remembers Simon. "It was a great role for him, and it fit the kind of movies that we want to make at WWE Films, throwbacks in the vein of classics like DIRTY HARRY, DIE HARD and 48 HOURS.  THE CONDEMNED is a character-driven, rollercoaster action film - with incredible action and a great story.  It's very real, and it's very in your face."
"You've got ten convicts who have all been condemned to die on death row," explains Austin. "But then they've been bought up by a TV producer and put on this island to fight for their lives.  And he's going to broadcast this over the worldwide web.   It's taking reality television to the extreme, and I think it asks a few hard questions about our fascination with those shows. Of course, it's also designed to take you out of your world for a couple of hours and give you a real rush!"
"We've become a society of voyeurs," adds Simon. "THE CONDEMNED begs the question of who should now decide what we can or can't watch.  It's a fascinating story."
Both the producers and Austin recognized that THE CONDEMNED's violent story line would require a physically demanding shoot. The story features many large-scale fights and extreme stunts; but for a seasoned WWE wrestler like Austin, that was hardly a concern.  "For me that was part of the attraction," he says. "And it's pretty much all filmed outdoors on incredible locations, and coming from a background of hunting and fishing, I thought I would enjoy that. And when I got together with Scott Wiper, I knew that WWE Films had picked the right guy for the job. He's an excellent writer and a wonderful director, and I knew I'd be in good hands."
Upon viewing Scott Wiper's second feature, a thriller entitled A BETTER WAY TO DIE, the producers were convinced that he was the right director for THE CONDEMNED. A graduate of Wesleyan University where his thesis film won the prestigious Frank Capra Prize for Best Student Film, Wiper wrote and directed his first feature, CAPTAIN JACK, in 1996, following it with A BETTER WAY TO DIE in 2000, which was financed by Newmarket and acquired by Sony Screen Gems and HBO.
Wiper, who did not write the original draft for THE CONDEMNED, was intrigued by the idea behind the script, but it was Austin's involvement that secured his interest. "When Steve and I got together, we really hit it off," says the director. "I got very excited about the project and pitched the producers my ideas, which involved making the whole game illegal and for the internet. From there, Steve and I hammered out the ideas together and eventually had the final draft ready to shoot."
In the role of Ian McStarley, a British special forces agent, the filmmakers turned to former English soccer star Vinnie Jones, who first came to attention with his breakthrough performance in Guy Ritchie's LOCK, STOCK AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS, and has since appeared in the films X-MEN: THE LAST STAND, SWORDFISH and GONE IN 60 SECONDS.  Says Jones,  "I really loved this role.  It's full-on action that never lets go.  It's a great idea and a great story. What's also fantastic is that Steve is not a wrestler in this movie, he's a movie star. And if Steve comes out as the big hero, then I come out as the best bad guy ever!  The audience will be booing me and loving him."
"Vinnie Jones was exactly right for this role," says Wiper. "He's a great actor. But like Steve, he's also a great athlete and could handle the physical work required. The combination of the two of them together made perfect sense."
Although a fighter himself, Austin began training for the fight scenes months in advance.  "I knew it was going to be a very physical shoot and a very long shoot, so I was in the gym everyday working out and I really cleaned up my diet.  Then I went to the Gold Coast four weeks in advance to work on all my fight scenes.   I was trained by some of the best guys around: Richard Norton, who's done hundreds of movies and worked with people like Jackie Chan; Sam Greco, who's a World Kick Boxing Champion; and local stuntman Ronnie Vreeken, who taught me different techniques such as working with sticks.  I also had to concentrate on my foot work - that's something I never did as a pro-wrestler. Everyone worked really hard with me over and over and over again, from start to finish."
Wiper felt strongly that Austin's fighting style should be markedly different from the techniques he regularly displays on the WWE stage. "I wanted his fans to say 'Whoa!  That's new!'" says the director. "So we developed a new way of fighting for him which was a mix of street fighting and martial arts."
From the beginning, the filmmaking team decided that none of the fighting in THE CONDEMNED would involve CGI effects. "That was the real focus of the film from the moment we started designing the fight scenes," says executive producer Michael Lake.  "We wanted all of them to be based in realism."
"The fight scenes in this movie are as real as you could ever get," avows Jones. "There are a few moments where Steve finally gets me down and just starts pummeling me.   We both said, 'Let's just go for this' when we shot it.  And I can tell you, I had bruises all over where he just hammered me!   But that was a big part of it - we were both prepared to go that extra mile to make this movie really work."
While it was important to Wiper that the fight scenes be authentic, violent and unapologetic, he knew the movie wouldn't work without strong performances from his cast. "Steve and Vinnie both took the acting component very seriously," he says. "And I think they're extremely good on both levels." For the supporting cast, Wiper actively sought actors who could learn how to fight, rather than casting athletes with little or no acting experience. "We were extremely fortunate to find such a talented group of people, such as Masa Yamaguchi, who plays Saiga.  He's studied martial arts since he was six, but he's also a very well-trained actor. The rest of the cast took the lead of Steve and Vinnie, and I have to take my hat off to them all - they were incredible."
Adds producer Joel Simon, "We put together some of the best stunt people in the business, and they enabled all the cast to perform nearly all of their own stunts.  It was actually very difficult for us to make Steve use a stunt man in some of the most dangerous sequences - he wanted to do everything.  He was brilliant."
As with other WWE Films productions like SEE NO EVIL and THE MARINE, WWE Films decided to make THE CONDEMNED in Australia. "We needed a great island location and knew we'd find it in Australia," says Simon. "The crews there are fantastic - they put 150% into their work - and the locations are extraordinary."   Adds executive producer Jed Blaugrund,  "On Queensland's Gold Coast, you can find the tropics, beautiful islands, the metropolitan scene - every possible style of location that this film - like our other two films required.  So to return to Australia was a very easy choice - we love it there."
The spectacular locations, however, were not always conducive to a large-scale film shoot. Explains executive producer Michael Lake,  "We shot in beach locations in the water, in huge waterfalls, narrow gorges, and then we had the climactic fight scene in the middle of a rainforest. The challenge was to safely place a cast and crew in those locations without harming the natural beauty of the environment and to get things in and out.  It was physically demanding, but it paid off because we have such an amazing look to this film across a whole range of locations."
The stunts and fight sequences were particularly treacherous for the actors and crew.  "I didn't want to use effects," says Wiper. "So when you see Steve with a hundred-meter cliff behind him, he's really up there. Or a fight through a steep waterfall - that was all real. Often, the only thing between the actors and a very long drop was a little cable."
The film was shot in several locations, but much of the action took place on Moreton Island, off the coast of Brisbane. "The island in this movie is a character in itself. I wanted an ominous look so that when you arrive you know there's something wrong with this place. We used an old Japanese fort and a downed American B-25 Bomber - signs of death and violence that were there from 60 years earlier. And we found these creepy beaches where there were all these dead trees buried in the sand. I tried to find as many locations as possible that were visually interesting but also worked with the story. So we start off on the bright beach and slowly descend into the heart of the rainforest where it's dark by mid afternoon."
Wiper hopes that with THE CONDEMNED he's delivered first and foremost a fun, popcorn, action movie. "That was always my number one priority," says the director.  "On the other hand, I think a great action movie has to, on some level, act as a cautionary tale about violence.   There's certainly a theme in this story about the dangers of violence on television and in video games.  But overall I wanted this movie to take the audience on one hell of a ride!"     
Adds producer Joel Simon:  "The film is certainly going to give the audience all the action they could ever want, but it will also offer them some thought provoking moments. And I think that's the appeal of this movie." 

STEVE AUSTIN - Conrad
Steve Austin's magnetic presence and bold, yet charming nature have captivated audiences around the world.  He is set to make his starring debut in the first of a three-picture deal under the WWE Film banner as the lead role in The Condemned, which will hit theaters nationwide on April 27, 2007.  He plays Jack Conrad, a prisoner awaiting the death penalty in a corrupt Central American prison, who is forced to fight to the death in order to gain his freedom.   
Austin's previous acting credits include The Longest Yard, starring Adam Sandler.  He played Guard Dunham, a tough, yet humorous, prison guard whose inmates attempt to start a football team.  In addition to film, Austin made his mark in television through his recurring role on the hit CBS show Nash Bridges as Detective Jake Cage.  His appearances across 13 episodes were the highest rated in the history of the show.  This inherent appeal makes Austin a sought-after and wildly entertaining guest for the top television talk shows.  He has appeared on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Live with Regis and Kelly, Jimmy Kimmel Live, and The Howard Stern Show.
What made Austin a house hold name around the world, however, was his legendary career as a professional wrestler with World Wresting Entertainment, where he is best known as "Stone Cold Steve Austin".  Stone Cold Steve Austin has pretty much done it all in his sports-entertainment career.  Between the WWE, WCW and ECW, he has held 17 championships, including holding the WWE Championship six times. In addition, the "Texas Rattlesnake" is a 3-time Royal Rumble winner and the 1996 King of the Ring.  He holds an immense and incredibly devoted fan base and is considered one of the most popular WWE Superstars of all time. 
This Texas native recently located to Los Angeles, though interests expand well beyond the realm of Hollywood.  As an avid outdoorsmen, Austin enjoys hunting, fishing, camping, four-wheeling and spending time with his three dogs.  Austin enjoys a variety of sports, especially football, and other interests include cars, trucks, motorcycles, country and western music as well as metal and rock.

VINNIE JONES - McSTARLEY
The combination of Vinnie Jones' talent, strength and attitude has made him an unstoppable force, much like his character in "X-Men 3: The Last Stand".  He starred in the massive  blockbuster as Cain Marko, better known as the Juggernaut.   
Jones' legendary soccer career has established him as a household name in the UK where he more recently filmed the independent feature, "The Riddle", starring Vanessa Redgrave and Derek Jacobi.  He was also seen as the scowling soccer coach in Dreamworks' "She's The Man" with Amanda Bynes,  and he recently played the lead role in "Johnny Was" starring Roger Daltrey, Eriq La Salle and Lennox Lewis.
Jones was discovered on the English soccer field when Guy Ritchie cast him in the gritty 1998 film "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels". His follow-up performance in "Snatch" starring Brad Pitt gained him global recognition.  Jerry Bruckheimer recognized Jones' appeal and hired him to star opposite Nicholas Cage and Angelina Jolie in "Gone In 60 Seconds"  Additional credits include "Swordfish", with John Travolta, "Mean Machine", the remake of the 1974 Burt Reynolds classic, "The Big Bounce" with Morgan Freeman and Charlie Sheen, "Eurotrip" opposite Matt Damon, "Blast" with Eddie Griffin, and Steven Segal's "Submerged"
Last year, England's number one comedian, Ricky Gervais, invited Jones to appear as himself in his popular comedy series "Extras" which now airs on HBO.   Other talents and interests are showcased through his books 'My Life: Vinnie Jones' and 'Vinnie: The Autobiography, Confessions of a Bad Boy', and his 2002 album, 'Respect', featuring renditions of Blues and Soul classics.

ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS

SCOTT WIPER - Director
Director/writer Scott Wiper is a graduate of Wesleyan University where his thesis film won the prestigious Frank Capra Prize for Best Student Film.  In 1996 he wrote and directed his first feature "Captain Jack" and then in 2000 "A Better Way to Die," which was financed by Newmarket and acquired by Sony Screen Gems and HBO. "A Better Way to Die" has since developed a cult following.  Wiper recently wrote two scripts for Warner Bros: "Salvation" for veteran director Walter Hill and Silver Pictures and "Salvaged Lives" for Outlaw Productions.  He also penned "Day for Night," based on his original pitch sold to Hyde Park/MGM, with Lion Rock Productions and Vince Newman producing.

JOEL SIMON - PRODUCER
Joel Simon is  president of WWE Films, which handles a diverse slate of entertainment projects.  Most recently he produced "The Marine", starring WWE Raw Superstar John Cena, which was distributed by 20^th Century Fox and "See No Evil" starring WWE SmackDown Superstar Kane, which was distributed by Lionsgate.
Previously, Simon served as president of Quincy Jones Media Group and Quincy Jones/David Salzman Productions, overseeing all feature and television productions from the late 1990s through 2001.  Prior to that, he was partnered for nearly a decade with producer Bill Todman, Jr. in Todman/Simon Productions, which had a first-look deal with Lorimar and Warner Bros. Pictures, and whose feature releases included "Married to the Mob" and "Hard to Kill".  For television, the company produced the CBS series "People Next Door" and the movie-of-the-week "The Innocent", which aired on NBC, as well as numerous network pilots.
Among Simon's additional production credits are the feature comedy "Vacuums", starring Chevy Chase; the blockbuster hits "X-Men" and "X-Men 2; "Wild Wild West starring Will Smith, Kevin Kline and Salma Hayek; "Steel", starring Shaquille O'Neal and "The In-Laws" starring Michael Douglas and Albert Brooks; plus the television movie "Passing Glory" for TNT, and "Say It Loud: A Celebration of Black Music in America", a five-hour VH1 original documentary mini-series.             

VINCE McMAHON (Chairman, WWE)
Vince McMahon, Chairman of the Board of World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (WWE), is a third generation promoter who has made WWE into the global phenomenon it is today. As a pioneer in the television syndication and pay-per-view businesses, a recognized television personality throughout the world, a visionary promoter and a fearless marketer, he continues to make his presence known as a leader within the broadcast and entertainment industries.
In 1972, McMahon joined his father's company, Capitol Wrestling Corporation, on a full-time basis.  By 1979, the company had syndicated programming to 30 television stations. In 1982, he purchased the Capitol Wrestling Corporation from his father and decided to take what had been a regional operation and turn it into a national venture. 
McMahon soon became a pioneer in the cable television industry by leveraging the new technologies of pay-per-view and closed-circuit television for the first WrestleMania.  Now, not only had he built a brand that people would watch in syndication, he had built the WWE into a brand that people would pay to watch. WrestleMania III in 1987 attracted 93,173 fans to the Pontiac Silverdome, setting an indoor attendance record that still stands. In April 2000, more than a million fans purchased WrestleMania X-6, at the time making it the most watched non-boxing event in pay-per-view history.  Wrestlemania has achieved the one million buys level four more times since then.  In fiscal year 2006, approximately six millions households purchased WWE pay-per-view events, making the company the largest pay-per-view event programming provider in the world 
Today, WWE produces new television programming 52 weeks a year.  Programs such as "Monday Night RAW" and "Friday Night SmackDown" are ratings successes that can be seen in more than 100 countries and heard in 19 languages. 
As the television audience has grown exponentially, so has the live event audience.  In 2006, WWE performed 346 live events, including 61 international events, entertaining more than 2.0 million fans.Under McMahon's leadership, the company continues to grow.  The company trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol WWE.  WWE has started WWE Films, which will produce and fully finance two to four motion pictures a year, and is making inroads into digital media platforms with new video on demand, broadband and mobile services.  In recognition of WWE's work to support children over the past 20 years, Vince, in 2005, was appointed to The Make-A-Wish Foundation of America National Advisory Council. He is a tireless supporter of the U.S. military; the WWE was the recipient of the USO of Metropolitan Washington's first ever "Legacy of Hope" award for WWE's extensive support of our troops and the USO's Operation Care Package program and in 2007, WWE received the Secretary of Defense Exceptional Public Service Award for its support of deployed service members in Iraq and Afghanistan.   

THE ART OF ORIGINAL FILMMAKING