Mark Wahlberg Talks Aronofsky’s The Fighter, The Departed 2 And 3
According toMark Wahlberg,Darren Aronofsky’sThe Fighterwill begin filming this October. Awesome. You may remember that the film, a biopic on badass pugilist"Irish" Micky Ward, gained considerable traction in the press last year when Wahlberg and others compared it to a “newRaging Bull.“Brad Pittlatersignedon to co-star as Ward’s brother/trainer, which was a welcome surprise after his casting debacle on Aronofsky’sThe Fountain.
“I’ve been training for two years now. I’m ready,” Wahlberg toldMTV. “I want to look like a champ, not a chump. …I want to do [Ward] proud. The guy did everything I wish I could have done. He came from nothing, went on to win the world title with all the odds stacked against him.”
Ward fought throughout the mid-’80s and ’90s, but he’s best remembered for three battles with Arturo Gotti in the early Oughts, two of which went down as the greatest in the history of the sport. Ward lost each one, but, wellclick here for a surreal refresher. Earlier this year, Aronofsky (Pi,Requiem for a Dream) wrapped up filming on the white trash indie epic,The Wrestler,starring Mickey Rourke (release date TBA), so if all goes as planned, we’ll be getting one helluva manly double feature to convert us into jittery pacifists. Somebody combine theRequiem for a Dreamscore with the YouTube link above to induce insta-goosebumps.
Wahlberg also updated onThe Departed 2…
“They’re [still] developing it,“Wahlberg sighed. “If it can be better than the first, then great. I’ll be all for it. I’m not interested in going for the paycheck. I love ‘Godfather 2’ but, then again, I don’t like ‘Godfather 3.'”
Everybodywantsto beThe Godfather 2these days, eh? Nothing revelatory in the quote above, but he also mentions the possibility of aDeparted 3(a prequel a laInfernal Affairs 2) as well…
“We may do another one, because it’s based on a Hong Kong film [‘Infernal Affairs’], and there is a trilogy. So we may do a sequel with a new cast, and a prequel and bring back the rest of the guys…”
That would make for some heavy dream team assembling.
Discuss: Can Aronofsky/Wahlberg/Pitt reach the greatness ofRaging Bull? Against tough odds,Infernal Affairswas a solid trilogy—do you thinkThe Departed 2andThe Departed 3will ever happen?
