Mark Wahlberg, whose last outing The Fighter earned him his second Academy Award nomination, is currently in talks to star in an adaptation of Steven Grant’s graphic novel, 2 Guns, Variety report.
The Fighter’s director, David O. Russell, was originally to helm the project, but has recently exited to focus on his next film, The Silver Linings Playbook, which Wahlberg himself has left due to scheduling conflicts, to be replaced by Bradley Cooper.
As such, the film will hopefully have its lead in Wahlberg, but is now searching for a director. If talks with Wahlberg are successful, having his name attached to the project should help it move forward and find Russell’s replacement.
Taken from Amazon’s US site, here’s a great description of the original graphic novel, which likely won’t change much in its adaptation:
“A pulp story about cops and thieves and the men that are something in between. Trench has targeted a local bank to rob, and asked Steadman in on the job. Trench figures it’s a great way to score — considering it’s a cover for mob money. They’ll be thieves ripping off thieves. But what Steadman doesn’t know is that Trench is a DEA agent. And what Trench doesn’t know is that Steadman’s a Naval Intelligence officer. They’re both cops! And neither one knows that they’re not robbing the mob, they’ve been set up to steal $50 million from the CIA! A light-hearted crime romp in the vein of Ocean’s Thirteen and The Italian Job from comics legend, Steven Grant!”
The remake of The Italian Job gets a lot of flack, but I personally thought that Wahlberg was great leading the film, and look forward to seeing him in a role with a similar feel. The script is being written by Blake Masters, who created and wrote TV’s Brotherhood and has recently been writing for Law & Order: Los Angeles, with Marc Platt producing, whose credits include Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and the upcoming Ryan Gosling-starrer, Drive.
Even though I would have loved Russell and Wahlberg to work on this project together, I’m glad it looks to still be moving ahead with the latter now in talks to star, and most likely produce alongside Platt. He’ll next be seen in Contraband, due out in March next year, opposite Kate Beckinsale, Ben Foster, and Giovanni Ribisi, and will then be leading Seth MacFarlane’s live-action feature debut, Ted, with Ribisi again, MacFarlane, and Mila Kunis.
