MOVIE NEWS – Fans have speculated that Sean Connery’s character is actually an older James Bond, but Jerry Bruckheimer dismisses the idea.

For years, it has been a popular fan theory that Sean Connery’s character in the 1996 action film is actually an older Bond running under a different name. As the theory persisted, many fans took it for granted that The Rock was actually about what happens to the original 007. It seems that The Rock is secretly not a James Bond sequel in disguise, as some fans have assumed.

The fan theory has caught on so much that it has now gone straight to one of the film’s producers, Jerry Bruckheimer, who addressed the theory in a recent Reddit AMA. Bruckheimer refutes the suggestion that The Rock is a sequel to a James Bond legacy, or at least not planned as such.

“We never discussed that, and we never even thought about it,” Bruckheimer said when asked if the filmmakers wrote The Rock with James Bond in mind.

In The Rock, directed by Michael Bay, Sean Connery plays a former SAS captain tasked as part of a team to break into Alcatraz when a group of escaped marines captures it. The theory goes that Connery’s character is actually a version of James Bond, arrested and imprisoned in the famous prison. Despite Bruckheimer’s denial, many fans will probably still think of Connery as Bond in the film, even if that was not the filmmakers’ intention.

The cliff also stars Nicolas Cage in one of the veteran actor’s most famous roles. Cage has long been a fan of Connery and the classic James Bond films. Even if Connery doesn’t play Bond in The Rock, Cage had an incredible time working with the famous Bond actor.

“He was a huge influence on my decision to become an actor,” Cage told ET in 2016, commemorating the 20th anniversary of the film. “All the way back to Dr. No, which I saw in a drive-in movie with my dad, I knew I wanted to be like him“.

Noting that he referred to Connery as “Maestro” on the set, Cage added: “We had a scotch together and just talked about his life. You know, he loves to sing. So between takes, he’d sing. It’s really cool to see Sean Connery singing a big-band version of Donna Summer’s ‘Hot Stuff’.”

Source : ET