Mark Wahlberg taking “Prisoners”

One of the hottest scripts in Hollywood right now is a dark thriller from a previously unknown writer who signed with a major talent agency only two weeks ago. The screenplay already has drawn the commitment of Mark Wahlberg and the interest of nearly every major studio in town.

Aaron Guzikowski, a Brooklyn native who flew out to Los Angeles just a few weeks ago and signed with Endeavor, is behind “Prisoners,” a project said to have echoes of “The Silence of the Lambs” and “Seven.”

The story concerns a Boston family man whose 6-year-old daughter and her best friend are kidnapped. He takes matters into his own hands by kidnapping the man he suspects responsible.

Guzikowski was noticed two years ago by management company Madhouse Entertainment, which then worked to develop this script through dozens of iterations (the company also will produce).

All that toil seems to be paying a quick dividend.

Wahlberg, a Boston native who plays a distressed father in Peter Jackson’s upcoming “Lovely Bones,” attached himself to the script shortly after Guzikowski’s Endeavor signing. The actor is also represented by Endeavor.

The agency declined comment on the project.

Studios, meanwhile, have been clamoring the past few days for rights to the project, but Endeavor is keen on finding a director before making a sale.
Source: Reuters