Mark Wahlberg And Peter Berg To Make 'The Six Billion Dollar Man'

Hollywood has been trying to turn the popular '70s TV show The Six Million Dollar Man into a feature film for decades. It's taken so long, inflation has ballooned the idea of a six million dollar man into a six billion dollar man. And now, the team behind Lone Survivor is stepping up to the plate to make the movie.

Director Peter Berg and star Mark Wahlberg are teaming up to make The Six Billion Dollar Man for The Weinstein Company and Dimension Films. They'll tell the story of a man named Steve Austin (Wahlberg) is nearly killed in a terrible accident, but is rebuilt with six billion dollars of improvements added onto his body. His newfound super strength and abilities make him an ideal secret agent.

Deadline broke the news of the Six Billion Dollar Man movie, which was apparently also discussed on the ESPN podcast, The BS Report (November 5 episode).

According to the report, Berg and Wahlberg will produce with the Weinsteins and Universal may help co-finance. (Universal released Lone Survivor.) The hope is for a 2015 shoot to make a 2016 release.

Under normal circumstances, I'd be pretty against remaking a Seventies TV show into a modern day movie. (See my write up on CHiPs.) But I think the idea of another big, dumb, Peter Berg action movie is exciting. I also like the idea of Wahlberg in this role and the whole conceit, as played out as it may be, could probably be taken into some fun and different directions.

You'd have to keep the tone light, though. Much less Lone Survivor or Friday Night Lights and more Three Kings or The Big Hit. Berg definitely has that in him. Sure he did Battleship, but he also did Hancock, Very Bad Things and – most importantly – The Rundown. Imagine a Rundown-esque Six Billion Dollar Man movie starring Mark Wahlberg? That sounds great.

What are your thoughts about the Six Billion Dollar Man movie?