Looking to pull himself back into kudos-land after a nasty detour into suck village, M Night Shyamalan has his new eco-thriller film The Happening all set up with Fox.
And now the writer-director also has a star. Mark Wahlberg will play regular family man and science teacher Eliot Moore in the tale of a cataclysmic natural crisis that threatens the end of life on Earth.
"Mark has a unique blend of charisma, humanity, authenticity and skilfulness as an actor," Shyamalan told Variety . "All of which coalesced at this moment in his career, making him the perfect person to take on the role of Eliot.”
And Fox has also picked a fittingly superstitious release date for the movie in the US: Friday the 13th of June 2008. "Friday the 13th has very distinctive, global connotations, which make it the ideal launching pad for this frightening thriller," gushed domestic distribution president Bruce Snyder in a statement. Let’s hope it’s not unlucky for the film.
Of course, a lot of that is up to Shyamalan, who lobbied for Wahlberg and will stick him in front of the cameras this August in Philadelphia.
Source: ( Variety )
