A question that has been asked and argues over for the last 10 years, since Wahlberg first talk about wanting to make the movie in 2014. A life-long fan he has fought to get hold of the rights for the characters and to make a movie of the show, with himself in the lead role, although due to inflation it would now be called the Six Billion Dollar Man.
In an interview on CBR today, he says playing Steve Austin is playing The Six Billion Dollar Man is more appealing to him than portraying a DC or Marvel superhero: “It’s grounded, and it’s plausible, real. You know, there is lots of bionics technology and science happening right now. So this is something that has all the wish fulfillment of a superhero, incredible things.” he says that not having to “wear one of those suits” was one of the main reasons why The Six Billion Dollar Man appealed to him. “I don’t have the confidence to walk around in one of those suits. ”
For anyone needing catching up, The Six Billion Dollar Man was first announced in 2014 with Wahlberg’s Lone Survivor director Peter Berg set to helm the reboot and filming scheduled to begin in 2015. But Berg departed the project in 2015 and was replaced by Damián Szifron (To Catch a Killer), with production delayed to September 2016. However, filming never began, and in December 2017, The Weinstein Company sold the film’s rights to Warner Bros., who announced a mid-2019 release for The Six Billion Dollar Man in April 2018.
Unfortunately, Szifron exited the project in May 2018 over “creative differences” and by that October the remake was removed from Warner Bros.’ release calendar. Szifron was eventually replaced in April 2019 by Bumblebee helmer Travis Knight, with Bill Dubuque (Ozark) announced to be writing the screenplay. However, it is unknown if the two are still attached to the project as of August 2024.
Earlier this year while promoting the adventure movie Arthur the King, Wahlberg shared that his team had just reacquired the rights to The Six Billion Dollar Man and was optimistic that the project would begin production soon. “We’ve got the rights again, we’re looking at making that movie – hopefully soon!” he shared. “Again, ticking clock. Thank God, it’s an older guy who they feel like has some real-life experience that makes it worth it for him to be the subject of this experiment.”
But is Mark Wahlberg the right man for the job? From a personal viewpoint I’m not sure he can still open a movie with big numbers, and given the amount of super hero fare that is already out there, how will this movie stand out from the crowd? I love that Mark wants to make it, but reckon for a big budget, big screen affair you would need a more bankable star. Plus what age-group is the movie aimed at as if you are looking at the people who already know the character/IP, most will be at least over 50 years old and will they really come out on opening weekend? Look at Lee’s recent big screen adaption of The Fall Guy, despite several big names attached – Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt – it struggled at the box office when early review were saying it was a dead cert to be a smash. TV-to-screen adaptions are notoriously hard to get right, think Starsky & Hutch and The A-Team for starters.
If Mark wants to bring this IP back, I think a better way to go would be through a streaming release. Netflix would be ideal for it, and have a prove track record with celebrity-driven action films, such Ryan Gosling’s The Gray Man and The Adam project, or Chris Hemsworth’s Extraction and Extraction II There is far less risk, a better guaranteed audience, and more chance of a sequel(s) if it does well. Big screen movies just have massive budgets these days and coupled with advertising costs, have to do phenomenally well to break a profit. A Streaming movie is a much easier proposition and post Pandemic is much more likely to be a hit.
We’ve been here before numerous times, only time will tell if this finally gets off the ground and is made….
The full CBR interview is here.
