Coming Home

Recent Oscar nominee Mark Wahlberg will be spending part of Summer '07 in The City Of Brotherly Love...

Michael Fleming of Variety:

Mark Wahlberg has been set to star in "The Happening," the thriller that M. Night Shyamalan will direct in August in Philadelphia.

Shyamalan set a spec deal for the spooky apocalyptic pic at the studio earlier this month (Daily Variety, March 7, 2007).

Wahlberg will play a man who takes his family on the run when the world turns upside and a cataclysmic natural crisis threatens to end the world...

Studio confirmed both Wahlberg and the date.

Twentieth Century Fox has carved out plans to release the film worldwide on Friday, June 13, 2008.

"Friday the 13th has very distinctive, global connotations, which make it the ideal launching pad for this frightening thriller," 20th domestic distribution president Bruce Snyder said in a statement.

At the time that Shyamalan made his deal with Fox, he'd already been making inroads to get Wahlberg aboard the film.

The actor, who just opened in "Shooter," is also getting in the ring with Matt Damon and director Darren Aronofsky on the Paramount film "The Fighter."

"Mark has a unique blend of charisma, humanity, authenticity and skillfulness as an actor," Shyamalan said. "All of which coalesced at this moment in his career, making him the perfect person to take on the role of Eliot Moore, the science teacher at the center of this event."

Here's the complete article....

Shyamalan calls Philadelphia home, having grown up in a suburb of the city, and has shot many of his previous films there as well. As for Wahlbergh, he is no stranger to the area, having made last year's feel good sports flick Invincible in town.

I must admit, as cynical as I am, I can't help but get a little excited, when I hear that folks from tinseltown are going to be playing in my neck of the woods.