Wahlberg terrified when he saw his new sci-fi chiller The Happening

ACTOR Mark Wahlberg said he was petrified when he first saw the finished cut of his new sci-fi thriller The Happening, released on Friday, June 13 - a date chosen by the studio to fit its eerie mood. More significantly, it also means the movie will go toe-to-toe with The Incredible Hulk.

Wahlberg told the Friday Night with Jonathan Ross chat show, on the UK’s BBC1 channel, that director M. Night Shymalan was waiting outside the auditorium when he viewed the completed movie. He told Ross: “I went out and starting choking him. It scared the living s**t out of me!”

marky1.jpgIn the $57million movie, Philadelphia high school science teacher Elliot Moore (Wahlberg) and other people begin find out that there are chilling deaths in major American cities that at first seem to be suicide. He flees from the strange events into the farmlands of Pennsylvania with his estranged wife Alma (Zooey Deschanel), maths teacher friend Julian (John Leguizamo), and his daughter Jess (Ashlyn Sanchez).

Wahlberg, aged 36, told Jonathan Ross he was now embarrassed by his earlier career as rapper Marky Mark (with the Funky Bunch) and as an underwear model - and he was visibly uncomfortable when shown clips and images of those earlier years. He said he now prepared extensively for every movie role to prevent future embarrassments.

Wahlberg was considered for a role in the film Brokeback Mountain. It was originally intended to star him and Joaquin Phoenix, but Wahlberg was uncomfortable with the film’s gay sex scenes and the part went to Jake Gyllenhaal.

The Boston-born star, who now lives in Los Angeles, was Oscar-nominated as best supporting actor for his role in The Departed. Apart from The Happening, his other sci-fi role was as Captain Leo Davidson in Tim Burton’s ill-judged and inferior remake of Planet of the Apes in 2001.

Director Shyamalan is no stranger to the sci-fi/fantasy genre, though his movies have had mixed success:
# The Sixth Sense (1999) - box office $670m (£340m) - supernatural thriller with a twist starring Bruce Willis; it was loved by critics and the public.

# Unbreakable (2000) - box office $248m (£125m) - Bruce Willis and Samuel L Jackson in this brilliantly realistic take on the superhero genre, a greatly misunderstood film full of suspense and intrigue. More of a cult hit than a mainstream success as it’s too serious to be mainstream superhero and too superhero to be mainstream serious. But well worth checking out - and comicbook fans love it.

# Signs (2002) - $408m (£206m) - starring Mel Gibson, a very good and chilling take on extraterrestrial invasion (though one wonders why aliens whose weakness was water would try to take over a planet consisting of two-thirds of the substance).

# The Village (2004) - $257m (£130m) - a very mixed affair, a good idea badly executed. Unconvincing.

# Lady in the Water (2006) - $73m (£37m) - a box office flop, this equally unconvincing film feels like the director was making it up as he went along.

So, let’s hope Shyamalan has returned to form. But with Marvel’s The Incredible Hulk coming out on the same day, it will be interesting to see which becomes the roaring giant at the box office.
Source: Coventry Telegraph