Wahlberg to play Max Payne

By Robert Purchese Published 9 November, 2007

Mumbling hunk in negotiations.

Twentieth Century Fox has approached Mark Wahlberg to star in its Max Payne film, according to a report.

He looks set to play the role of the tough cop whose wife and child are brutally murdered by drug addicts, prompting him to go on a hell-bent rampage eventually uncovering the evil mastermind behind it all.

According to Variety, Max Payne will be put together by Behind Enemy Lines and and The Omen director John Moore, and be based on a script written by Beau Thorne.

Filming is due to begin early next year.

Max Payne was a PC game by Finnish outfit Remedy Entertainment that introduced bullet-time gunplay to the wonderful world of gaming.

Remedy Entertainment is currently working on Alan Wake, an action adventure game based around a writer who is losing his marbles and some spooky spectre-things that come out when the sun goes down.

It is due for release sometime next year, but nothing has been heard about it for a while.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (56) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • quantumsheep #1 4 years ago

    Didn't like the new Omen film much - too many 'cheap' scares I thought.

  • UncleLou #2 4 years ago

    There's a Mark Wahlberg and, as imdb informed me, also a Mark Walberg, but no Mark Whalberg that I knew of. ;)

  • cyber_nicco #3 4 years ago

    I would hope that this is a sign that they are going to take the film seriously. Not that Wahlberg is Olivier or something, but he is a "star".

    I don't know, I'm just hoping for once they take one of these movies seriously - at least try to make a decent movie...
    Edited by 1 at 09/11/07 @ 14:00

  • Caimbeul #4 4 years ago

    Oh God... :-(

  • UncleLou #5 4 years ago

    Not that Wahlberg is Olivier or something, but he is a "star".


    Really, really like him. Was great in The Departed as well as in Boogie Nights.

  • Avenger1324 #6 4 years ago

    It's Wahlberg not Whalberg isn't it?

  • MBar #7 4 years ago

    There is no Mark Walhberg. Only Marky Mark.

  • zuljin #8 4 years ago

    On a slightly unrelated note, I'm still interested what they're going to pull of with the Hitman series.

  • Artemis_Matsas #9 4 years ago

    Meh... just give us the sequel to the "Super Mario Brothers" Movie, and we're set!!!

  • The-Bodybuilder #10 4 years ago

    >"Was great in The Departed"

    Yeah, the whole combined 60secs he was on scene.

  • Triggerhappytel #11 4 years ago

    I can't say he would be my first choice to play Max Payne. Hopefully he's better than the dude who's playing Agent 47 - Timothy Olyphant, or whatever his name is.

  • UncleLou #12 4 years ago

    Apart from the fact that he was in a few key scenes, your point is...?

  • AliRay #13 4 years ago

    They'll probably try to be all arty and put a film noir spin.....

    Oh. Sorry.

  • aldo_14 #14 4 years ago

    I bet Marky is practicing his constipated grimace as we speak.

  • Olemak #15 4 years ago

    Games-to-movies invariably suck almost as hard as movies-to-games, tho. What is the point, anyway? Even though the story is remarkably complex and intriguing for a shooter game, it is not really much to write home about when compared to other movies - is it?

    I don't think the IP is worth much, either. Not like I am going to rush out the door to see this one, even though I enjoyed the game a lot. I just don't see the "synergy" between games and movies; although I see the point the other way around: massive movie marketing help sell games - I just don't think the opposite is true.

    The upcoming Hitman movie is very comparable, I think. I can't really see the link between the gameplay that made that game great (disguises, puzzle solving, player freedom and plain badassness) evident in any form in the trailer. If anything, Timmy Olyphant looks vulnerable and skittish, not at all similar to the cold-hearted Agent 47 in the games. The similarities seem to end at the baldness, the black suit and the barcode tattoo. I don't think the nonsense about a cloned superassassin is going to go over very well in a movie setting at all.

  • loopy #16 4 years ago

    First time I've seen an article mention Alan Wake in a while. I wonder how that's coming on, looked very interesting the last I saw of it.

  • PortJourno #17 4 years ago

    Max Payne should be played by Mickey Rourke

  • rudedudejude #18 4 years ago

    Hope it follows the storyline of MP1, cracking game.

  • UncleLou #19 4 years ago

    Max Payne should be played by Mickey Rourke

    20 years, many bottles and a few boxing matches too old. ;)

  • PrinzPils #20 4 years ago

    Max Payne should be played by Eddie Cahill from CSI : NY.
    I was really hoping for him to be chosen for that role, but he surely is too unknown....
    )C:

  • Olemak #21 4 years ago

    Bah, Max should be played by Ricky Gervais.

    Now that I would pay to see.

  • RexRunti #22 4 years ago

    Why the hell isn't John Woo directing? The game was a rip off of (well homage to) his movies in the first place.

  • lambtron #23 4 years ago

    I have to agree that Wahlberg was really great in the Departed.

    Even if 90% of his dialogue was "F**K!"

    http://www .youtube.com/watch?v=c-uwa9dUCk0
    Edited by 1 at 09/11/07 @ 15:15

  • BBIAJ #24 4 years ago

    They need Peter Stormare to play Vladimir the Russian.

  • Stupid_Fat_Hobbit #25 4 years ago

    Hopefully he's better than the dude who's playing Agent 47 - Timothy Olyphant, or whatever his name is.

    Do yourself a favour and downlo... I mean, legitimately purchase the first season of Deadwood. Olyphant is pretty good. I don't expect Hitman to be anything other than a pile of monkeypoo anyway, though.

  • schachmatt #26 4 years ago

    The director has done some unremarkable stuff and not even imdb knows of a writer named Beau Thorne. Also, miserable producers often try to make press by mentioning popular names without ever having even gotten their agents phone number.

    Remedy has done remarkable work with the Paynes and while the story is a clichee they are some of the best written games and it flows together with the gameplay (at least in the first one perfectly). If anyone should write anything Max Payne it should only be Sami Järvi/Sam Lake.

    However Remedy are also traitors having announced a third one and then selling the rights to Take-Two (I think).
    Edited by 1 at 09/11/07 @ 15:41

  • PearOfAnguish #27 4 years ago

    "Why the hell isn't John Woo directing?"

    Probably because he hasn't done a good movie since the mid-90s.
    Edited by 1 at 09/11/07 @ 15:42

  • The-Bodybuilder #28 4 years ago

    >"Apart from the fact that he was in a few key scenes, your point is...? "

    That was my point.
    I thought it was pretty obvious.

  • bionutz #29 4 years ago

    Great. He's a good actor. /adds movie to waiting pipeline

    He was in few key scenes in the Departed, but no tipical movie could be good without good supporting actors. I am always impressed how well he can act!

  • kangarootoo #30 4 years ago

    I can see that working actually.

    He is a guy that perhaps does more than his fair share of popcorn movies, but he's actually a pretty good actor despite his shady pop music background. He should probably look a touch older and wasted than he does in his typical roles though.

  • UncleLou #31 4 years ago

    I thought it was pretty obvious.


    No, it wasn't at all.

  • tomwhitaker #32 4 years ago

    Make it R-rated and I'll be there with bells on. Make it PG-13 and they can go fuck themselves.

    The Payne games were fun in that they were an affectionate pastiche of a load of movie cliches, which doesn't work if you then make a film, unless it's a spoof - you're just left with a lot of cliches. Still, any excuse to see a proper action film with guns, bullets, blood and swearing.

    Wahlberg has shown his dedication to that cause by making Shooter, one of the few recent R-rated action films, and Fox have surprisingly done the same with Hitman, after they PG-13-ed the Alien, Predator and Die Hard franchises. So if you want to see this done right, buy a ticket for Hitman... even if you walk into a different screen and see something else :)

  • jack_klugman #33 4 years ago

    A gritty film noir with bullet time.

  • Triggerhappytel #34 4 years ago

    @ schachmatt - according to the small print on the box, Take Two have owned the franchise since at least before Max Payne 2 was released.

    I don't think Remedy have ever intended to make Max Payne 3. I think they wanted to use the next eleven years to work on Alan Wake.

  • wowami #35 4 years ago

    &PrinzPils

    me and the missus call that guy from CSI - Max all the time.

    glad to see we not on our own..

  • zoidberg #36 4 years ago

    They better not screw this up.

    Max Payne 1 was the best.

  • Feanor #37 4 years ago

    "Make it PG-13 and they can go fuck themselves."

    But only once.

  • Pulsar_t #38 4 years ago

    I was hoping for Michael Madsen but Mark is good too!

  • Pulsar_t #39 4 years ago

    Or Sean Penn even! :p

  • Ryltar #40 4 years ago

    I always thought Dean Winters (Ryan O'Reily from the tv show Oz) would have made the perfect Max. He looks the part and is a great actor.
    [link url=http://www.imdb.co m/name/nm0935921
    ]http://www.imdb.co m/name/nm0935921
    [/link]

    Oh well, just hope it doesnt suck too much :p

  • captainrentboy #41 4 years ago

    Let's face it chaps, this will be a watered down shitfest, it might start off as a hard R rated film, but like Die Hard 4 and Hitman before it, once the movie studio bigwigs get in on the act it'll be chopped to fuck and made suitable for all the teenie boppers out there. It's all about the moolah with these IPs now, so if they can cut it to be more suitable for a younger audience they most certainly will even if its at risk of making a mockery of the actual franchise.
    Die Hard 4 was definitely one of the worst cases I've seen, they didn't even do a good job editing, they just chucked in different, cleaner lines even though you could clearly see the characters were effing and blinding on screen.
    Raaaaaaaaa, it really annoys me.

  • Pulsar_t #42 4 years ago

    Sigh if only people were as polite as those portrayed in PG-rated films!

  • yagisencho #43 4 years ago

    Alan Wake...that's a blast from the past. When was that originally set to release? Autumn 2005?

  • schachmatt #44 4 years ago

    @ Triggerhappytel: Apparently you're right, Take-Two was already owner of Payne when the second one was made.

    However, whoever put the "Max Payne will continue his journey through the night" in the end of the credits of MP2 seems to have wanted to make another one.
    I can't imagine how the story could be followed up coherently, but I couldn't imagine it after the first part either.

  • Nithron #45 4 years ago

    It totally needs to have a Dick Justice trailer at the beginning.

  • The-Bodybuilder #46 4 years ago

    >"No, it wasn't at all."

    Cool. My point was that he wasn't in the film much.
    Dunno what else I could've added.
    Edited by 1 at 09/11/07 @ 23:34

  • mattjohnston #47 4 years ago

    I always thought that Christopher Nolans "Memento" was the perfect Max Payne story...which will probably make sense to someone.

  • imperial_seal #48 4 years ago

    "Why the hell isn't John Woo directing?"

    "Probably because he hasn't done a good movie since the mid-90s."

    No, because he is directing "Red Cliff", a film about the Three Kingdoms period in China, which would be out next year, look out for it, its looks rather good !!
    Edited by 2 at 10/11/07 @ 13:08

  • Lukus #49 4 years ago

    Wahlberg is too chunky looking.

  • NewYork #50 4 years ago

    "He looks set to play the role of the tough cop whose wife and child are brutally murdered by drug addicts, prompting him to go on a hell-bent rampage eventually uncovering the evil mastermind behind it all."

    Punisher.

  • Hive #51 4 years ago

    Erm yeah. Just another Punisher to me...

  • SomaticSense #52 4 years ago

    schachmatt: "Also, miserable producers often try to make press by mentioning popular names without ever having even gotten their agents phone number."

    You mean like in Bowfinger?

    I am so watching this film if that's the case :D

  • Hugundo #53 4 years ago

    Wahlberg?

    Pah

  • Razorus #54 4 years ago

    I always thought Max Payne looked like Johnny Knoxville from Jackass.

    Doubt he could do some gritty serious acting though.

  • schachmatt #55 4 years ago

    Well, Bowfinger was a top produced and well written movie about a badly produced, even worse written one.
    I doubt the producer (whose other project is McGees Alice and another to me unknown vg game called Venom btw, but has no history besides that) knows where Wahlberg eats dinner, so they have little chance of staging some scenes in a Bowfinger way.

  • hbunny #56 4 years ago

    I'll second the defence of Timothy Olyphant as an actor. He's the sheriff and nominally the good guy in Deadwood, but you wouldn't want to cross him! He's scary.

    But yeah, Hitman will be shit. And Marky Mark mumbles too much: see Shooter for evidence (though I liked the film).
    Edited by 1 at 11/11/07 @ 21:23