Last year, when Mark Wahlberg was busy on “The Fighter” press circuit, most notably talking up “Uncharted” — which his best bud David O. Russell has now officially moved on from — there was one other project he mentioned: “Broken City.” Wahlberg said last fall, “there’s this other thing, ‘Broken City,’ that I want to do at the end of next year with Allen Hughes directing, which is on the Black List. It’s one of the best unproduced screenplays, an amazing piece of material that should attract amazing talent.” Well, it certainly has the money behind it now.
Deadline reports the film now has a $60 million budget courtesy of Emmett/Furla Films. We’ve read the 2008 Black List script and it’s and one of our favorites of recent years. A neo-noir as dark as night, it follows Billy Taggart, an ex-cop thrown off the force after shooting a 16-year-old kid. Eight years on, he’s working as a private detective, and is hired by the colorful incumbent in the New York mayoral race to investigate his wife’s infidelity. It’s a pretty solid slice of genre fare but everyone involved says it’s still very early days.
Wahlberg is attached to a good half-dozen projects right now including “The Silver Linings Playbook” shooting later this summer with his Russell; “Cocaine Cowboys” which he’s been working on for a while now; “Bait And Switch,” an action-comedy over at Universal; some kind of street basketball movie with Justin Beiber; a re-team with Will Ferrell in “Turkey Bowl” and a sequel to “The Fighter.”
So yeah, anything can happen after ‘Silver Linings’ so who knows if/when this will ever get off the ground. Meanwhile, Allen’s bro Albert recently bailed on “Akira” and there’s no word if he’ll re-team with his sibling, but right now, it seems the duo are content to work apart.
