It’s like Darren Aronofsky week at the Playlist.
Yesterday, we brought you the unfortunate and exclusive news that Brad Pitt has dropped out of the supporting role in Aronofsky’s “The Fighter” which was supposed to star him and Mark Wahlberg as boxing brothers based on the true-story lives of welterweight champion, “Irish” Micky Ward and his brother, a former boxer, drug addict and then fisticuffs trainer, Dicky Eckland.
Today ComingSoon.net has more info via an interview Mark Wahlberg and it cast further doubt on the project, but also… kinda not.
Asked what’s holding up the project, Wahlberg alludes to the bad news about Pitt. “A whole bunch of things [are holding the project up]. It’s too depressing to talk about. I get up everyday at 5:00AM to train for a movie that might not even happen. It’s depressing.”
When asked about what’s happening with “The Departed 2,” Wahlberg says he doesn’t even know (or care?) cause he’s so zeroed-in on “The Fighter.”
“I don’t know if they’re working on [The Departed 2′] yet. I have no idea what’s going on. I’m so focused on ‘Fighter'” and that’s not even happening so it’s all depressing. I’m just looking for the next thing. I’m always looking for the next thing. I’ve done three or four movies since I’ve been training for ‘Fighter’. “
Wahlberg says he’s been training for two years, and it seems like the lack of Pitt in the project is now the main hurdle, but he and Aronofsky are meeting soon to talk about the project, and presumably who might be a good replacement for Mr. Angelina Jolie?
“They finally got the green light, now we have to figure out the cast thing. I’m going to meet with Darren Aronofsky on Tuesday in New York so we’ll see. The great thing about training is that I just keep getting better and better in the ring. Ultimately if I can train for another six months and look like a world class fighter that would be great as opposed to other people who have done it and probably trained for three weeks and then shot it and looked like they’re in a Hollywood movie.”
Sounds more than problematic, right? Well, Slashfilm reports that location on the project is moving forward in Lowell, Massachusetts where the story takes place. (under the auspices of Paramount). That at least sounds promising, no? With all this news buzzing around about this project, we’re sure someone will get some official word soon, but it remains to be seen whether “The Fighter” or the “RoboCop” reboot will be Aronofsky’s next project. He was surely coy about it when we asked him. Then again, like “The Wrestler,” maybe, just maybe the boxing film can be set up quickly and shot in the in between – “RoboCop” is not scheduled for release until 2010 and the script is still in the early development stage Aronofsky said on Saturday at the HBO Dialogues talk in New York.