Mark Wahlberg To Star As THE SIX BILLION DOLLAR MAN
Classic TV characters of yesteryear have been an otherwise useful source for studios to present to viewers as remakes for sometime now. Some of those remakes tend to flounder, including NBC’s short-lived 2007 reboot of Bionic Woman, which happened to be closest thing we’ve come to a reboot of any kind harkening back to its roots as preceding 70’s television series, The Six Million Dollar Man.
Now, it appears today’s audiences will be getting a straight forward big screen revamp of the latter, with word from Deadline regarding The Weinstein Company’s forthcoming production of The Six Billion Dollar Man (via Dimension) with Lone Survivor star and director, Mark Wahlberg and Peter Berg, to star/produce and direct, respectively. The original 1974 series, based on “Cyborg” – the 1972 novel by author Martin Caidin, lasted eight seasons with actor Lee Majors in the role of astronaut Steve Austin, who becomes a superhuman secret agent for the government after surviving a horrific plane crash causing damage to both legs, his right arm and left eye.
The film will likely be another PG-13 seller for family-friendly audiences even as studios find ways to “push the envelope” to keep things entertaining. So it’s safe to say with hits like The Rundown and Berg’s work on sci-fi thrillers Hancock and Battleship, prospects for the The Six Million Dollar Man seem quite fortunate. As for whether or not we finally get to meet the character Jamie Sommers by then…well, that remains to be seen.
Filming commenses next year for a 2016 release from Universal Pictures.
H/T: Deadline