14 DAY TRIAL // Just in case you were craving for some more games-turned-movies news, here it comes. The Max Payne movie, announced a good two and a half years ago, is still on track apparently. A new shot of Mark Wahlberg as Max Payne has surfaced. The former Marky Mark is sporting a real mean and haunted look while entering or exiting a car. There's also a camera in the background. And that's about it. Not a whole lot of new material there for fans of the game.
For anyone not familiar with it, Max Payne is a dark game about a cop whose whole family is killed. Of course, he seeks revenge while being simultaneously wanted by the police as the main suspect in his family's murder. Lots of fighting ensues, the beautiful Mona Sax makes an appearance and, in the end, all the baddies are dead. The main innovation of the game was the use of bullet-time, in which the flow of time slowed down allowing the player to take on his enemies with real time reactions.
The game also had a sequel, the Fall of Max Payne, released in 2003, that wrapped up the story nicely, with Max's conscience now cleared and all the people guilty of his wife's death out cold and six feet under. Although a new sequel was rumored to be in production, it has never materialized.
John Moore is the director behind the movie, which is set to be a throwback to the noir cop movies of the '60s and '70s. With former white rapper turned hero in Shooter Mark Wahlberg playing Payne, it is widely reported that Mila Kunis, best known for her role in That '70s Show, will play an assassin character that seems modeled after Mona Sax. The producers have not made it clear if the movie will feature any other character from the games or if the plot lines will be the same.
The movie is currently set to be released worldwide somewhere in 2009. So, we have time to hope and pray that it does not suck.