The good news for all you SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN-philes out there is that the Mark Wahlberg take on Steve Austin is still on. The bad news (actually two parts) is that a. Peter Berg is out as director, replaced by WILD TALES helmer Damian Szifron, and that b. it will be coming out a year-plus later than expected.
Szifron was initially only set to write the script, but he’s been bumped up to the director’s slot, leaving Berg open to direct any of the number of projects he’s attached to. They were originally planning to get things together quickly enough to get this out in 2016, but thankfully, cooler heads prevailed, and now they have until December 2017 to get this thing right.
It drops on the 22nd, a week after Spielberg’s READY PLAYER ONE and the same day as THE CROODS 2. AVATAR 2 is scheduled to come sometime that month also, and if they go for that December 20th (a Wednesday) date to match the original’s release on 12/19, then expect the SIX BILLION DOLLAR MAN to bionic-run away faster than the fucking Road Runner.
They’re changing Steve Austin from a test pilot to a soldier this time, but weirdly enough they’re keeping his name STEVE AUSTIN even though very few Americans associate that with this character anymore (all the bonus points in the world if Wahlberg dons an AUSTIN 3:16 shirt at some point).
Wahlberg actually has the perfect blend of comedy and action chops to make this thing work, and I’m hoping that having tentpole newcomer Szifron in the chair will give us something a little more bizarre and a little less HANCOCK than whatever Berg would’ve turned in.
Say hi to your mother for THE SIX BILLION DOLLAR MAN on December 22nd, 2017.
