Marky Max Payne

Fugitive undercover cop Max Payne is a man with nothing to lose. His wife and kid are dead, he’s been framed for murder, a powerful narcotic is pervasive on the streets, and both the police and the Mafia want his head. It’s the perfect stuff for a videogame.

Or, it seems, a major motion picture. Mark Wahlberg thinks so — he’ll be slipping on the worn leather coat and running around with a mouthful of noir and a fistful of Beretta in Fox’s MAX PAYNE adaptation. With its gritty atmosphere, hard-boiled story, cinematic flair and obvious John Woo influences, the gloriously violent game has been aching for the Hollywood treatment, and Wahlberg and director John Moore (BEHIND ENEMY LINES) will provide it.

Wahlberg will shoot many holes through people in slow-motion once he’s finished duties on Peter Jackson’s THE LOVELY BONES, which he stepped into as last-minute replacement for Ryan Gosling. Production on THE FIGHTER, his collaboration with Brad Pitt and Darren Aronofsky, has been shifted back to later in 2008.

The MAX PAYNE game spawned a fantastic-looking sequel, the tragic love story Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne, although elements of that follow-up probably won’t make their way into the Fox film. Maybe the movie will finally prompt a third game in the series.