That’s the look of a guy who can’t understand why the city he loves is giving him the cold shoulder. All Mark Wahlberg wants to do is give the Boston Marathon Bombing the Hollywood tribute it deserves, lifting the city from turmoil to place it on a shrine in the Hollywood Hills.
It would seem that the citizens of Boston think differently and aren’t ready for a movie adaptation of the attacks:
“How does someone who markets himself as `a Boston guy’ not see that it is far too soon, that the city is still far too sad for its trauma to be transformed into mass entertainment?,” asks Brandeis journalism professor Eileen McNamara. (via)
How indeed? I guess it all depends on your point of view. Like Mel Brooks making fun of the Nazis, Wahlberg wants sop up that pain gravy and make it into a hearty, healing meal. And he’s not alone. There’s at least four or five other Boston-centric projects on the list for production according to The AV Club, including a movie called Boston Strong and a TV mini series.
Charlotte Wilder over at Boston.com notes that this was inevitable, but the timing might be off. We’re still facing the attackers in court and the folks in the area can probably still clearly remember the manhunt that went very public in the days following the attack.
A better direction for Wahlberg would be to hold back and avoid the Dante’s Peak scenario. Just because somebody else has a Boston bombing movie coming on the fast track, doesn’t mean you need to have one too. Give yourself a moment, maybe do two or four more Transformers movies before punching Will Ferrell in the d*ck repeatedly. After that, make your Boston bombing movie. Make two.
I’m still waiting for my Mark Wahlberg 9/11 movie. He says he could’ve stopped 9/11, I say prove it. Money on the table.
(Via Boston.Com/ The AV Club)
