Mark Wahlberg to play 'MAX PAYNE'
The Shooter star takes on another character who's fond of violence in this video game movie adaptation.
Mark Wahlberg is negotiating to play the title character in Max Payne, Twentieth Century Fox's live-action adaptation of the popular Rockstar videogame, reports Variety's MICHAEL FLEMING.
Payne is a rogue cop still haunted by the murders of his wife and daughter three years previous. The 2001 third-person shooter game was followed by a sequel in '03.
John Moore, a veteran of remakes like The Omen and Flight of the Phoenix, will direct from a script by Beau Thorne. Julie Yorn is producing with Scott Faye.
Wahlberg would shoot Payne after Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones. Also on his slate is Darren Aronofsky’s The Fighter in late '08. He recently starred in M. Night Shyamalan's The Happening, which will be released next summer.
"What seems strange about this casting announcement," commented Slashfilm's PETER SCIRETTA, "is that Wahlberg has been very vocal saying that he won’t join a film that doesn’t have an incredible script. The creative talent involved in this project is less than to be desired. So it makes me wonder if there is a great screenplay behind this project."
Filming on Max Payne begins in early '08.