Cinemablend reported on Friday that Mark Wahlberg has entered into negotiations with Twentieth Century Fox to play the titular role in the upcoming Max Payne movie, a screen adaptation of the best selling Rockstar action game. Though the project has been delayed for a long time – it’s been five years since the latest installment, Max Payne 2 - the attachment of a high profile actor like Wahlberg means the film is close to becoming a reality. Hurray?

I just can’t really muster up any excitement about this. Maybe I’m just skeptical because pretty much every film adaptation of a video game I’ve seen has sucked moderate to heavy balls. The film will mirror the plot of the first Payne game, with Max investigating a string of mysterious murders while coping with the loss of his family (with violent results!). While the storyline had some interesting stuff going on (a mysterious new drug on the streets, evil corporations, organized crime, etc), I think it might get butchered a bit in the effort to chop it down to a ninety-minute movie. Wahlberg’s a talented actor but what can he really do with a thin character like Max? He’s just kind of a standard, loose cannon cop.

It’s going to be tough to make a really fresh movie out of a game that borrowed liberally from existing movies. The aesthetics smack of John Woo action films and the slow-mo “bullet time” is based entirely on The Matrix’s special effects. Video games commonly borrow story elements from film, but will it work to recycle those same elements into a film? I guess I shouldn’t pass judgment just yet (though I have trouble picturing a Max Payne movie without “bullet time” making an appearance) but it looks like Marky Mark has his work cut out for him.