Last fall, a remake of Iceland’s Oscar entry for last year, the thriller “Reykjavik-Rotterdam” by director Baltasar Kormakur, was announced with Mark Wahlberg producing and potentially starring and then….well, nothing.
But it looks like the project is picking up steam again as Latino Review is revealing that Kate Beckinsale has joined the project to take a starring role opposite Mark Wahlberg. Now titled “Contraband,” the film follows a security guard and former smuggler who, facing financial troubles, is roped back into his old life. The logline seems pretty dry, and we haven’t seen the original film, but Wahlberg is no slouch when it comes to picking projects so perhaps it’s a lot meatier than the one-liner suggests. No word yet on when production might begin, but Aaron Guzikowski, who penned the very hot Black List script “Prisoners,” is writing the screenplay.
The actor has his Oscar fare for this year “The Fighter” hitting theaters in December and a handful of projects on his potential plate including “The Raven” and a recently offered role in “The Odd Life Of Timothy Green” to be directed by Peter Hedges.
I've seen the original film, and it's underwhelming and totally forgettable, to say the least. And I can't totally agree with the sentiment that Walhberg is "no slouch" when picking projects. His last five starring role films, in between "The Other Guys" and "The Departed": "Shooter," "We Own the Night," "The Happening," "Max Payne," and "The Lovely Bones." That's a bad, in some cases laughable stretch there. In my opinion, he's only good in the hands of a strong director (PTA, David O. Russell, Scorsese).
may be it's well-written!!! i'm nice here because Wahlberg seems to have a good year today(and i have great hopes for "the fighter")
James Gray(We own the night") is a strong director