Mark Wahlberg is 'Max Payne'

Posted Friday, November 9, 2007 at 10:40 AM Central

by Tim Briscoe

According to Variety, Mark Wahlberg has been pegged for the title role in Max Payne. The movie is be based on the video game series of the same name.

The story line is dark and violent -- like many unoriginal video games. Payne is a NYPD cop who discovers his wife and newborn daughter murdered by drug addicts. Flash forward three years and Max is now undercover DEA agent embedded in a mob family. His lone DEA contact is shot dead, leaving Payne the chief suspect and on the wrong side of the law. At the same time his true identity is leaked to the mafia. This leaves Payne between the proverbial rock and a hard place.

The movie will be directed by John Moore. His previous work include Behind Enemy Lines and the Flight of the Phoenix and The Omen remakes.

Max Payne, the video game, was originally developed by 3D Realms for the PC. After the initial release in 2001, it was ported to both Xbox and PlayStation 2 by Rockstar Games. Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne was released in 2003 and a third installment is reportedly in the works.

Apparently the script by Beau Thorne is complete so production shouldn't be impacted by the current writers strike. Twentieth Century Fox should have the movie in production some time next year.

Variety notes that shooting should begin after Wahlberg has completed his turn in Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones. Marky Mark (I call him that because I know he hates it) is taking over the role vacated by Ryan Gosling.