SIX BILLION DOLLAR MAN Gets Oscar-Nominated Filmmaker as Writer

Damian Szifron, the filmmaker who nabbed a best foreign-language film Oscar nomination for Wild Tales, has been tapped to pen the screenplay for Six Billion Dollar Man.

Mark Wahlberg is attached to star in and Pete Berg attached to direct the updated version of the The Six Million Dollar Man, the 1970s TV series which in turn was based on the Martin Caidin novel Cyborg.

Billion Dollar Man again focuses on Steve Austin, this time a military officer instead of a test pilot, as he was in the TV series, who suffers a horrible accident only to be saved by cutting-edge technology. This technology makes him half machine and gives him incredible strength and speed.

“The themes surrounding this beloved property allow for the creation of a memorable sci-fi actioner as well as a bold spy thriller,” said Szifron in a statement. “Expectations are high and I’ll do my best to deliver the strongest basis for an amazing cinematic experience.”

Szifron is an Argentinean filmmaker who wrote and directed last year’s Wild Tales, an anthology that told six dramatic stories. It received a best foreign-language film Oscar nomination while sweeping Argentina’s version of the Academy Awards, netting 10 wins out of 21 total nominations.

Source: THR

New NSFW Trailer For TED 2

Universal Pictures has released a new Ted 2 red-band trailer for director Seth MacFarlane’s upcoming comedy sequel. The film finds Mark Wahlberg reprising his role as a man whose best friend is a living, talking, foul-mouthed teddy bear (MacFarlane), only this time around Ted is fighting for equal rights in the eyes of the law when he wants to have children with his new bride.

This trailer doesn’t delve any deeper into the story than the previous teaser did, but it’s significantly funnier. As with the first film (and Family Guy, for that matter), the jokes have less to do with the story and more to do with riffing on pop culture trends and cliches; there’s a Law & Order gag that’s particularly laugh-inducing. That being said, a simple series of jokes doesn’t necessarily translate into a satisfying viewing experience, and with Mila Kunis‘ character not returning for the follow-up, I’m curious to see where the central emotional conflict of the story lies.

Check out the new Ted 2 red-band trailer below, along with a new poster, via Universal. The film also stars Amanda Seyfried, Liam Neeson, Giovanni Ribisi, John Slattery, and Morgan Freeman.  Ted 2 opens in theaters on June 26th.

Seth MacFarlane returns as writer, director and voice star of Ted 2, Universal and Media Rights Capital’s follow-up to the highest-grossing original R-rated comedy of all time.  Joined once again by star Mark Wahlberg and fellow Ted writers Alec Sulkin & Wellesley Wild, MacFarlane produces the live action/CG-animated comedy alongside Bluegrass Films’ Scott Stuber, as well as John Jacobs and Jason Clark.

THE SIX BILLION DOLLAR MAN: Mark Wahlberg Says SIX BILLION DOLLAR MAN Is A "Superhero" Movie

Last month, is was reported that Wahlberg would team up with his Lone Survivor director Peter Berg (“Hancock”) for a film adaptation of the 1970s television series The Six Million Dollar Man, aka The Bionic Man, which starred Lee Majors (“The Fall Guy”).

While promoting his new movie The Gambler, Mark Wahlberg chatted with the entertainment website, Collider, about his upcoming film project The Six Billion Dollar Man. Though, he won’t get to it until he has finished Deep Water Horizon.

Wahlberg briefly spoke of the project with Collider:

Any plans for you to be a superhero in the future?
WAHLBERG:  We’re talking about doing Six Billion Dollar Man, which is very much a superhero, but I don’t have to wear any kind of spandex cape.  So that would be cool.  Howard Gordon is writing the script and people are talking about doing it, but we got a great, great idea and it’s something that’s been in the pipeline for quite some time, so hopefully if we get the script right maybe we’ll make it after we do the Deep Water Horizon.

UNCHARTED: Mark Wahlberg Still Attached?

Transformers: Age of Extinction star Mark Wahlberg was attached to star in the big screen adaptation of the hit PlayStation video game series back when David O. Russell was directing, but we’ve now learned that he’s still very much the frontrunner to play Nathan Drake!

Uncharted has been in development for a number of years now, and the fact that the critically acclaimed video game series still hasn’t received the big screen treatment is baffling to say the least. Sony have certainly tried, and a number of writers and directors have been attached at one point or another. The latest is Horrible Bosses helmer Seth Gordon, while franchise fan and Zero Dark Thirty scribe Mark Boal is writing the latest draft of the script. Who will star in the movie?

ComicBookMovie.com has seen an email between Sony execs including Amy Pascal and Jonathin Kadin which reveal that back in June a meeting took place between Gordon and Mark Wahlberg (who was attached to the project a number of years ago) which apparently went very well. They talked in great detail about the version of the script which existed at that time, and the actor was agreeable to shooting Uncharted in early 2015. It’s then mentioned that they need a commitment from Mark “soon”, and while we can’t confirm he’s signed on – Chris Pratt was recently mentioned as being approached but declining – the studio are clearly high on the actor and it appears as if Wahlberg was keen to sign on. We’re assuming he’s playing the lead, but that’s not mentioned.

The Pain & Gain star was even shown a “mock trailer” which is said to have blown him away. Again, a lot might have changed in the past six months, but Wahlberg was extremely close to joining the cast at one point and Pratt could have been approached before these talks took place (remember, his possible involvement was only mentioned casually in a report from one of the trades). We also have a couple of very minor details about the production, including the fact that both Australia and Mexico have been looked at for shooting locations. Gordon meanwhile is said to be keen to cut back on green screen, something which should make fans of the action franchise happy.

TRANSFORMERS 5: Mark Wahlberg Commited To Transformers 5

With the release of Transformers: Age of Extinction this past summer, the giant fighting robot franchise did a bit of rebooting work. While it wasn’t overall job, audiences did say goodbye to the likes of Shia LaBeouf, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson and others as new human characters played by Mark Wahlberg, Nicola Peltz, and Jack Reynor were introduced. Now that the franchise is moving forward with a fifth Transformers movie, many have been wondering if the new gang will be carrying over to the next sequel – and now we know the answer is yes for at least one of them.

Mark Wahlberg is currently out promoting his new film The Gambler, and while speaking to MTV he confirmed that he is locked up in a long term contract with Paramount Pictures that will see him starring in Transformer movies for many years to come. Asked if his time being around giant robots was coming to an end or just beginning, the actor responded, “Yeah, I committed to doing a couple more.”

But while Wahlberg may be signed on and ready to go for Transformers 5, the same can not be said about the man who has been helming the movies from the beginning. Back in August, shortly after it was announced that Transformers: Age of Extinction had eclipsed the $1 billion mark worldwide, Bay revealed that he is now looking to explore other avenues with his career and won’t be back for the next installment. That being said, the director also said very similar things after Transformers: Dark of the Moon, and he was convinced to come back after taking a break from action blockbusters with Pain & Gain. In the MTV interview, Wahlberg added that he couldn’t speak for Michael Bay’s presence on Transformers 5, but that “something tells [him] we’ll be on the set soon.”

It’s not exactly a huge surprise to hear that the folks at Paramount Pictures are eager to get yet another Transformers movie into development. While the movie didn’t perform tremendously here in the United States, making only $245 million and ranking as dead last in the live-action franchise, it was a gigantic hit overseas and eventually pulled in a global total of $1.087 billion – enough to rank it as the highest grossing movie of 2014 (Marvel Studios’ Guardians of the Galaxy sits in second place with a $772 million total). If Paramount wants to get another sequel in the works, however, they’re going to need to find somebody to steer the ship, and we have not heard a peep about potential candidates to replace Michael Bay.

Mark Wahlberg And Will Ferrell Are Teaming Up Again

After stalling in development limbo back in May 2013, parental comedy Daddy’s Home looked like it might be gaining some momentum last June when it appeared that Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg were set to reunite for the first time since The Other Guys. Paramount has them locked in to star, with Horrible Bosses 2 director Sean Anders primed to call the shots.

Daddy’s Home finds Ferrell as a mild-mannered radio executive who is always striving to be the best stepdad he can be to his wife’s two kids. But then their freeloading, uncouth biological pop (Wahlberg) shows up, forcing our hero to compete for the children’s attention. Yes, it’s Wahlberg versus Will this time, which has us hoping for some prime comedy madness.

The script has been through a variety of hands, including Etan Cohen (who thought he might make it his directorial debut last year), Chris Henchy, Other Guys co-writer director Adam McKay, Anders and his regular co-writing/producing partner John Morris. It appears the latter pair has hit upon a draft that has everyone on board, it’ll likely shoot early next year.

Wahlberg has The Gambler set for May 1 next year, while Ferrell will be seen in prison comedy Get Hard, due March 27.