Earlier today, ComingSoon.net got on the phone with actor/producer Mark Wahlberg to talk about his crime-thriller Contraband–you can read that interview next weekand we had a chance to ask him about a couple of his many projects in various stages of development.
With his hit HBO show “Entourage” wrapping up last year, we asked about the plans to spin it off into a feature length film and what we might see happen in that medium. “I saw Doug Ellin yesterday on my street and I was asking him when we’re getting the script and we’re just waiting on Doug to finish writing,” he told us. “I’m working with him on what the story is but I’d like to see the guys just get back to being the guys again.”
We also asked about when we might see Season 3 of Wahlberg’s other hit HBO show “Boardwalk Empire,” wondering whether they had some overall gameplan for how long the series might last.
WARNING: IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THE LAST EPISODE OF SEASON TWO YET AND YOU EVER PLAN TO WATCH IT, STOP READING HERE!
“It’s such a fascinating world,” he said. “You could literally watch Al Capone become Al Capone. People are like, ‘How can you kill Jimmy?’ What people didn’t understand is that he’s really the only fictional character. None of the other guys could go.”
He told us that Terence Winter and his team are currently writing the third season and that we might see it sooner than later. “I think they may even start shooting in the next month or two and get right back on the air,” he said about the timeframe for that next season, and he’s not worried about bringing the cast back together despite them all being very busy, probably because they’re all under contract. ‘They’re still able to do their thing, and they’re all in a situation where they can continue to remind people that they’re the best actors out there. I mean, Michael Shannon is fantastic, Steven Buscemi, it doesn’t get any better than that.”
SPOILERS OVER
Wahlberg certainly has explored a lot of different aspects of the world of crime, and for years, he had been developing a dramatic feature based on Billy Corben’s documentary Cocaine Cowboys, which looked at how cocaine became a huge commodity in Miami during the ’70s. He was going to do that movie with director Peter Berg but earlier this year, rumors began circulating that Wahlberg might do the movie with his long-time collaborator David O. Russell after the success of The Fighter, but Berg seems to be back in the mix, as we were told he’s taking another pass at the script. “We’ve already had two drafts of the script. Pete Berg is now writing the last draft. I actually just read some pages of it yesterday; it’s coming out really good, so we’re excited about it. We’re doing a story about Jon Roberts and Mickey (Munday) and develop that as a film.” (At one point, there was a plan to do a cable show based on the material as well, but in the movie, Wahlberg would be playing Roberts.)
A few weeks ago, at the New York junket, Wahlberg mentioned there had been talk of doing a sequel to his action film Shooter, produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura, and though it seems unlikely at this point, he did tell us a little about what their original plans would have been:
“We wanted to do something because there are so many books. I wanted to do something but not act in it and get somebody else to play the Bobby Swagger role. Last time we talked, we talked about another project so I haven’t spoken to him for a while about it.”
Look for our full interview with Mark Wahlberg early next week before Contraband is released on January 13.
(Photo Credit: Adriana M. Barraza / WENN.com)
