. . .and Movie Mazzupial said it was good

Oh. My. Gawd. Do you ever have those moments at work, on the train, or mid-conversation where you just float off day-dreaming and go to your happy place? I do. One such happy place is an orgy starring myself, Mark Wahlberg and James Franco. I now have confirmation there actually is a God as my happy place is becoming a reality! By reality, I mean the kind where I have a body like Beyonce, ride a Unicorn to work and am a writer at Empire Magazine. In translation Wahlberg and Franco have been attached to star in a comedy called Date Night by director Shawn Levy (of the Night At The Museum movies). The flick revolves around a couple played by comedy heavy-weights Tina Fey and Steve Carell whose night on the town goes awry. Wahlberg stars as a buff securities expert and Franco is a dim-witted criminal. Seriously, could this cast get any more awesome? I think not! With a 2010 release date there’s still plenty of time for a few more names to be added to the line-up but right now my contentment is filled to the brim. Date Night marks Wahlberg’s second venture in to comedy after he was signed on to star with Will Ferrell in The B-Team (click here for more info). Comedy, action, drama . . . .I couldn’t give a hoot what genre he stars in as long as I see some fresh Wahlberg movies soon! As a side-bar, Franco is ace and his comedy work in Pineapple Express earned him a Golden Globe nomination so this project should be stellar (Stellllaaaa!).

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Wahlberg taking no `Prisoners' in 09

It seems Mark Wahlberg is putting in a real effort to make up for a `disappointing’ 2008. I use `disappointing’ in inverted commas because as a hardcore Wahlberg fan I was definitely not disappointed with any of his performances last year. Critics on the other hand didn’t respond as positively leading to many a Wahlberg-lashing (metaphorically, thank heavens) online. For example, check out this letter to Mark Wahlberg published on the Empire blog which asks him to make better movies in `09. Of course, critics being critics they were all quick to condemn his parts in The Happening and Max Payne but were more than willing to overlook his brilliant turn in We Own The Night which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. Now that you have a bit of background history, it looks like Wahlberg has got a busy year ahead of him. Not only is he starring in Peter Jackson’s film adaption of The Lovely Bones (FYI the film Movie Mazzupial is most looking forward to this year) it has also been announced he will star alongside Will Ferrell in The B-Team, a action comedy about two incompetent cops. See the post February post Taking one for the team for more info. On top of this the sequel to The Italian Job, hilariously titled The Brazilian Job has a 2010 release date so he’ll be working pretty heavily on that. To throw another ingredient in his-return-to-form recipe, it as been announced Wahlberg will star in a dark thriller called Prisoners. Penned by up and comer Aaron Guzikowski, its about a Boston family-man whose 6-year-old daughter and best friend are kidnapped and then he takes matters in to his own hands by kidnapping the man he thinks is responsible. Yawn. This sounds like tired storyline which has been done again and again and again. Think Mel Gibson in Ransom, Denzel Washington in Man On Fire, Bruce Willis in Hostage and more recently Liam Neeson in Taken. This role plays right in to real life Boston boy Wahlberg’s comfort zone but the thing that interests me here is people are comparing the dark nature of the script to films such as The Silence Of The Lambs and Seven, which sounds a lot more promising than a formulaic rehash. Although Wahlberg is confirmed to star, studios are still trying to choose a director. Stay posted for more Prisoners updates.

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Taking one for the team

The only thing better than Mark Wahlberg movie news is, well, more Mark Wahlberg movie news. The delicious, delectable and damn fine Wahlberg is set to team up with Will Ferrell in an action comedy. According to Variety, the Wahlberg-Ferrell project is being pitched to studios this week but with both stars on board, no doubt it will be green-lit in a matter of seconds. The film would be called The B-Team and the two actors play cops who, presumably, are a notch or two below A-team. This is intriguing. Why, you ask? Marky Mark has never done a comedy before. He starred as an obsessively anti-petroleum firefighter in indie flick I Heart Huckabees which was a semi-comedy (more weird absurdism than comedy) but I don’t think that counts as past experience. Usually Wahlberg is majorly in to the action, blockbuster, drama and occasionally independent roles so doing a mainstream comedy with Ferrell is a big step out for him, one which I think will pay off. Man, I can’t wait to see this. The B-Team doesn’t have a release date or director yet so it’s a fair way off.

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