Mark Wahlberg is MAX PAYNE!
Video game adaptation comes from the director who brought us Behind Enemy Lines, Flight of the Phoenix and The Omen!
His Oscar nomination for The Departed has sure propelled Mark Wahlberg to the top of the Hollywood ladder. In the last 12 months he has secured himself... The lead role in a sci-fi movie with M. Night Shyamalan titled The Happening. He was chosen by Peter Jackson to be the male lead in The Lovely Bones, when Jackson literally had hours to find a replacement for Ryan Gosling. He was also attached to the boxing biopic The Fighter, though despite his extensive months of training it looks like director Darren Aronofsky has instead decided to make The Wrestler with Nicolas Cage. He was the first choice to lead G.I. Joe, though as we speculated it doesn't look like he will be in the big summer tentpole for Paramount. Instead the movie he will be filming early next year will be an adaptation of the Rockstar video game Max Payne, which has quickly been put together over at 20th Century Fox as a pre-strike movie and will be helmed by John Moore, the guy who brought us Behind Enemy Lines and the remakes to Flight of the Phoenix and The Omen. Hardly a choice that stimulates much confidence.
Wahlberg is negotiating to play the titular cop who is haunted by the tragic loss of his family and has little regard for rules as he investigates a series of mysterious murders. He finds himself up against an adversary bent on destroying Max and the streets he protects.The script comes from Beau Thorne (whose CV I can't find on IMDB). Nice choice of lead actor and it will of course save the movie from failing financially. If The Punisher made $54 million worldwide with an unknown actor, this one should do at least the same and probably as much as the $95 million that Shooter made with Wahlberg last year. In terms of the film's actual quality? Not on your life will this be anything more than a popcorn movie.