Henrick Vartanian
The last time Mark Wahlberg was in a basketball movie, he co-starred with his buddy Leonardo Dicaprio, in “the Basketball Diaries.” But nowadays the actor is teaming up with teen heartthrob Justin Bieber to shoot some hoops on the big screen, reports MTV.
All this unfolded after The Hollywood Reporter, and Deadline broke the news about Paramount Pictures negotiating with Wahlberg and the Biebs for an untitled drama that about street basketball players.
“Wait till you see me and Bieber in the flick. Think of like ‘The Color of Money,’ ” Wahlberg said on Saturday where he arrived at Spike’s Guys Choice Awards. He explained: “So I get this call from Paramount [where they tell me about the story about] an old guy and a young guy. I’m like, ‘Cool, let’s get Jack [Nicholson]. Let’s get Robert De Niro. Let’s get Robert Duvall.’ And they go, ‘What about Garrett Hedlund?’
“I’m like, ‘For what?’ ” he further recalled. “They’re like, ‘For the young guy.’ ”
Wahlberg playfully told MTV he thought he’d be playing Bieber’s part in the movie but finally made peace with playing the “old guy” role.
At the MTV Movie Awards, on Sunday, the Biebs also confirmed in not so many words: “You’ll have to see. I can’t really reveal too much about it.”
