Marky Mark, Shooter

After months of talks, Mark Wahlberg has agreed with Paramount to star in Shooter, to be directed by Antoine Fuqua. The film is based on Point of Impact, Stephen Hunter's novel about "a master sniper [Wahlberg] lured out of a reclusive existence to prevent an assassination. He's double-crossed and hunted for a murder." Ooooh - damn that military and its deception. Since one review of the book refers to the sniper as "a thinking man's Rambo," I'm guessing he doesn't take the double-crossing lying down. The film has already been in development twice, once with Keanu Reeves as the sniper, and once with Robert Redford, so no one can be blamed for not believing in this one until film is actually exposed.

Also in the works for Wahlberg and Fuqua at Paramount is By Any Means Necessary, a "terrorist drama" with Al Pacino. Though this film was initially scheduled to shoot first, Pacino and Paul Attanasio, who is doing a rewrite of the script, have been unavailable, so Shooter, the screenplay for which is ready to go, might actually go ahead.