2008 wasn’t a good year for Mark Wahlberg, what with The Happening happening, Max Payne living up to its name, and then that business with SNL’s Andy Samberg ripping the piss.
But clearly Wahlberg is determined to make 2009 memorable for a ll the right reasons – last week, he signed on to star alongside Will Ferrell in the comedy, The B Team, and today he attached himself to Prisoners, one of the hottest spec scripts in Hollywood.
A dark revenge/kidnap thriller, Wahlberg will star as a man who embarks on a decidedly unorthodox revenge mission when his daughter and her best friend are kidnapped. Instead of coming over all Liam Neeson in the stupendous Taken (to which this sounds pretty darn similar) and punching and killing everyone he meets, Wahlberg instead kidnaps the man he believes is responsible.
The script, by newcomer Aaron Guzikowski, has been compared to **Silence Of The Lambs **and Seven, which means it’ll be a lighthearted family comedy. Guzikowski only just signed with a major agency, Endeavor, and is already watching studios tear each other to shreds in an attempt to get their hands on his bulging manuscript.
Currently, though, no studio is attached, with Endeavor, who are also Wahlberg’s agents, endeavouring to get a director on board before taking the package round studios. It’s expected that a director will come on board by next week. And yes, we know that **Max Payne **wasn’t that great, but someone like John Moore might suit this material down to the ground. Please, feel free to disagree and add your own suggestions...