Last fall, a remake of Iceland's Oscar entry for last year,the thriller "Reykjavik-Rotterdam" by director Baltasar Kormakur, was announced with Mark Wahlberg producing and potentially starring and then....well, nothing. Then, last month Latino Review revealed that Kate Beckinsale had joined the project to take a starring role opposite Wahlberg.
Today, it looks like things are now going full steam forward as Universal has snapped up the film, approved its $30 million budget and turned on the the greenlight. Now titled "Contraband," the film follows a security guard and former smuggler who, facing financial troubles, is roped back into his old life. The logline seems pretty dry, and we haven't seen the original film, but Wahlberg is no slouch when it comes to picking projects so perhaps it's a lot meatier than the one-liner suggests. Aaron Guzikowski, who penned the very hot Black List script "Prisoners," is writing the screenplay.
No word yet on a production start date, but presumably sometime in 2011 once Beckinsale has wrapped up her duties on "Underworld 4." But there will be plenty of Wahlberg in the upcoming months as the most recently released trailer for "The Fighter" indicates that he is a very strong contender for a Best Actor nomination at this year's Oscars.
Update: Here's the new poster for the film via Yahoo.
After the first somewhat fluffy trailer for David O. Russell's boxing drama "The Fighter," the long-gestating project was looking like a shadow of its former self which, in the past, had attracted a prestige of talent including Darren Aronofsky, Brad Pitt and Matt Damon.
A new sneak peak that debuted last night on AMC during "Mad Men," however, has finally exhibited some of the potential which has seen the film touted as an award season contender. Adding equal parts of thespians Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale and Melissa Leo, the trailer hints at a plot involving a tug of war for Micky Ward's (Wahlberg) attention between his half brother/trainer (Bale), his girlfriend (Amy Adams) and his mother (Leo) which looks every bit a tense, hearty relationship/family drama lying underneath a rag-to-riches sporting tale. A passion project for Wahlberg, the actor has been attached to star as Ward for the best part of the last decade and linked up with familiar talent to help get the project on screen: O. Russell directed him in "I Heart Huckabees," while Bale was briefly attached to star alongside him in everyman-goes-vigilante project, "Prisoners." "The Fighter" hits theaters December 10th; color us excited.
OK, these are a couple of Big If & Maybe stories as they are still in development and the talented circling may never end up coming on board, but with the names surrounding them as big as they are, it's sort of hard to ignore as well. So just consider it as a heads up.
First up, "Wedding Crashers" duo Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilsonmight potentially reteam for the action comedy "2 Guns." Written by "Brotherhood" scribe Blake Masters, the film would follow "two lawmen, neither of whom realizes the other is a 'good guy,' as they plot to rob a bank together, having been assigned to do so by their employers, and then must figure out who the dirty money belongs to as their respective agencies try to hunt them down." We're sure there is a piece missing to that logline that explains why a lawman would be assigned to rob a bank, but it seems right in the zone for these two. Vaughn is currently attached while Wilson is showing interest in the project that is set up at Universal. Meanwhile, Seth MacFarlane, who never misses a moment to yell "Jew!" or "Gay!" to try and get a laugh, is putting the pieces together on his R-rated comedy, $65 million dollar feature debut "Ted." As was reported earlier in the year, the film focuses on the relationship between a man and his teddy bear (the latter character will be CG-generated and voiced by MacFarlane himself) and the problems it poses when he gets a girlfriend. So just how button pushing will it be? The film apparently has parts for "a racist homosexual, a woman obsessed with talking about men shaving their assholes, and a 'Jewish-looking' person who makes anti-Semitic remarks." So, sounds like your typical "Family Guy" episode.
Anyway, Mark Wahlberg is looking at joining the film in the lead role. Wahlberg in a foul-mouthed, taboo spewing comedy? Yeah, sure we'll believe it when we see it. And given the heavy price tag, and Universal's recent and very public run in with GLAAD over the "Electric cars are gay" joke in "The Dilemma," you can bet they're gonna be second guessing giving this film the greenlight. Btw, don't be surprise if you hear Seth Rogen's name in connection to this project, according to the recent pages of Production Weekly, the young actor has been eyed to have a role. Our guess is while MacFarlane might want to voice the animal himself, Seth Rogen might be a better name to help draw audiences in.
Last fall, a remake of Iceland's Oscar entry for last year, the thriller "Reykjavik-Rotterdam" by director Baltasar Kormakur, was announced with Mark Wahlberg producing and potentially starring and then....well, nothing. Then, last month Latino Review revealed that Kate Beckinsale had joined the project to take a starring role opposite Wahlberg.
