Mark Wahlberg is Peter Berg's billion dollar drug dealer

By Matt Holmes / June 25, 2011

Paramount not interested in Mark Wahlberg for G.I. JOE, have instead gone right out and tapped up the actor for a future Peter Berg project based on the life of drug dealer Jon Roberts. His rise and fall was chronicled in the brilliant 2006 documentary COCAINE COWBOYS of which the film will take much from. The studio now own the film rights to Roberts life and once the WGA strike is over, a writer will be hired to take on this tale.

Roberts was a decorated soldier when he returned from Vietnam and soon moved over to Miami in the late 70's and found himself in-tangled in a relationship with a Medellin drug cartel. He became a huge distributor of billions of dollars worth of cocaine and became such a big figure that he could bribe the Miami PD to shut down causeways, so in GRAND THEFT AUTO style - he could race cars. Wahlberg is right at the top of the Hollywood ladder at the moment, constantly finding himself with the lead role in a whole host of projects. He's currently filming THE LOVELY BONES for Peter Jackson having just filmed M.Night Shyamalan apocalyptic horror THE HAPPENING and Darren Aronofsky's delayed THE FIGHTER. He is also expected to play MAX PAYNE in a movie adaptation of the popular video game. Berg's schedule too is quite filled with his name attached to no less than 6 projects in the last 12 months... though his next movie does look likely to be EDWIN A. SALT with Tom Cruise. So Lord knows if/when this project will get off the ground but having seen that COCAINE COWBOYS doc... this could be the MIAMI VICE movie that we all hoped Michael Mann would make. source - variety