Mark Wahlberg to Star as Cocaine Cowboy for Peter Berg
Continuing his ascent as one of Hollywood’s go-to lead actors, Mark Wahlberg is set to star as an international drug dealer in a still untitled film based on real events for Hancock’s Peter Berg. The drug dealer in question is Jon Roberts, who a few of you may have seen in the shockingly good ‘06 documentary Cocaine Cowboys. Roberts operated a few clubs in New York, did a successful stint in Vietnam and soon after migrated to Miami where he became a top domestic distributor for the notorious Medellin cocaine cartel. His power and notoriety reached a level where he could pay off the Miami PD to shut down causeways and race cars, and other madness only seen in the visions of Rockstar Games. He later did a decade in prison. Wahlberg is currently filming Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones, followed by Darren Aronofsky’s The Fighter alongside Brad Pitt, and you’ll see him next on screen in M. Night Shyamalan’s The Happening. Dream a little dream, right?
It’s fascinating to me to see drug dealers become immortalized more and more with their very own Hollywood films. Now, Pablo Escobar is one thing, as anyone who’s read Killing Pablo (in development) can attest. He helped start one of the longest world wars of all time, the so-called War on Drugs. Then there’s George Jung, who had the luck of having Johnny Depp play him in Blow even though he looked more like Pizza the Hut. It’s debated that Jung introduced America to its billion dollar love affair with cocaine.
Most recently, we saw the life of ex-heroin dealer Frank Lucas in American Gangster, and watched the real guy brag to any outlet that would listen that Denzel Washington bought him a large house in appreciation for such a great role. And then Jay-Z got the urge to make a new bestselling album inspired by Lucas and the film. I’m not going to lie, I thought American Gangster was ethically questionable, basically attempting to mold an important historical figure out of foul air. And perhaps the dudes in Entourage would have been better off bringing the life story of the Ramones to the big screen, instead?
How do you feel about the new drug dealer biopic trend?
Source Link: Variety
James King Biography
An alluring, lithe blonde who got her start modeling as a teen, James King went from cover girl to hot Hollywood property, appearing in a whopping five releases set to open in 2001 and another ready to lens in the summer of that same year. Born Jamie King in Omaha, Nebraska, the young girl sought to broaden her horizons and asked that she be allowed to attend the local modeling school. At age fourteen, at the school’s final presentation, King was discovered by New York model agent Michael Flutie, who offered the teen beauty a shot at stardom. King was soon on the fast track, appearing in all the major magazines, including Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Elle and Allure.
Displaying a more playful personality and down-to-earth appeal than the average stone-faced model, King had something special that would elevate her quickly to supermodel ranks, but along with her great successes came big problems. Young and free with money to spend, the model was on the party circuit, and drug use soon became more of a lifestyle than a recreation. When the life of her then-boyfriend, an up and coming photographer was cut short reportedly due to a drug overdose, King determinedly worked to straighten up her life. By 1998, she was back in business, co-hosting MTV’s fashion series “House of Style” with Rebecca Romijn-Stamos. With her likeness in countless magazines and her name on the lips of those in the know, King had made a name for herself in the fashion industry, but her teenage party girl past threatened to shadow her accomplishments.
In 1999, King began lensing her first feature, “Happy Campers” (screened at Sundance Film Festival in 2001), co-starring as counselor Pixel in this teen comedy written and directed by “Heathers” screenwriter Daniel Waters. Next up for the actress was a supporting turn as the grown up daughter of Johnny Depp’s enterprising drug dealer George Jung in the drama “Blow” (2001), directed by Ted Demme. A co-starring turn as the object of a nerdy young man (Jason Schwartzman)’s affections in the college comedy “Slackers” was set to hit screens in April of 2001, but the folding of Destination Films kept the film shelved until 2002. King fans looking forward to catching the actress in a substantial role would be sated with the May 2001 unspooling of Michael Bay’s World War II romantic epic “Pearl Harbor”. Here she played Betty, a bright and bubbly seventeen-year-old nurse who sneaks into the navy for adventure. Later that year she would star with teen heartthrob Joshua Jackson in “Lone Star State of Mind”, playing a girl looking to pursue dreams of fame and fortune by leaving her little Texas hometown behind.
King next landed a leading role as the seductive Russian mob princess Bad Girl in the comic book action film “Bulletproof Monk” (2002) opposite Chow Yun-Fat and Seann William Scott, and ventured into broad comedy with a turn in the Wayans brothers’ “White Chicks” (2004) as one of the bitchy Vandergeld sisters, arch-rivals to the blonde, white heiresses the Wayans are masquerading as. The beautiful actress was one of the few characters to appear in color in director Robert Rodriguez and writer-artist Frank Miller’s visually arresting (and otherwise black-and-white) adaptation of Miller’s crime noir comic book series “Sin City” (2005), playing the angelic murdered hooker Goldie as well as her vengeful twin Wendy opposite Mickey Rourke’s hulking Marv in the sequence “The Hard Goodbye.†After a supporting part in the indie black comedy “Pretty Persuasion†(2005) and a regular role on the sitcom “Kitchen Confidential†(Fox, 2005- ), King joined the original cast for the sequel “Cheaper By the Dozen 2†(2005), starring Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt as the overburdened parents of a family of twelve. Meanwhile, King was cast to appear in the sequel “Sin City 2,†set for release in summer 2006.
- Also Credited As:
Jaime King - Born:
on 04/23/1979 in Omaha, Nebraska - Job Titles:
Actor, Model
Family
- Mother: Nancy King.
- Sister: Sandi King. older
Significant Others
- Companion: Bradley Cooper. met while working on the Fox series “Kitchen Confidential” in 2005
- Companion: Robert Ritchie. together from early 2000; reportedly split in 2001
- Companion: Alex Burns.
- Companion: Davide Sorrenti. son of photographer Francesca Sorrenti and brother of photographer Mario Sorrenti; died in 1997 at age 21 of a kidney ailment that was thought to have been brought on by excessive heroin use
- Companion: Jake Gyllenhaal. reportedly dated in spring 2001
- Companion: Kid Rock. together from early 2000; reportedly split in 2001
- Companion: Matt Damhave. reportedly dating in 2002
Milestones
- 1991 At age 12, enrolled in an etiquette class at Omaha’s Nancy Bounds Studios (date approximate)
- 1993 Was discovered by Company Management owner Michael Flutie at age 14 and began modeling in New York
- 1997 Began recovery for heroin addiction after losing her boyfriend Davide Sorrenti, reportedly to a drug overdose
- 1998 Co-hosted MTV’s fashion series “House of Style” with Rebecca Romijn-Stamos
- 2001 Acted in the World War II romance epic “Pearl Harbor”
- 2001 Co-starred in the college comedy “Slackers”
- 2001 Co-starred with Joshua Jackson as a pair of small towners desperate to leave their small town in “Lone Star State of Mind”
- 2001 Featured in the summer camp-set comedy “Happy Campers”, screened at Sundance 2001
- 2001 Played the grown-up incarnation of Johnny Depp’s daughter in “Blow”
- 2003 Had female lead opposite Chow Yun-Fat in “Bulletproof Monk”
- 2004 Starred as a socialite in the comedy “White Chicks”
- 2005 Cast as Tanya, the hostess in Fox’s “Kitchen Confidential”
- 2005 Cast in the indie film “Pretty Persuasion” with Evan Rachel Wood; screened at Sundance
- 2005 Starred in “Sin City” the adaptation of comic book icon Frank Miller’s uber-noir series of grapic novels; co-directed by Miller and Robert Rodriguez
- Spotlighted as an upcoming star in The New York Times Magazine at age 16