According to Deadline, chronic nostril-flaring Mark Wahlberg is teaming up with Seth MacFarlane’s teddy bear. The film is Ted, a live-action story about a young boy who wished his bedtime friend would come alive – which it does. Years later as the boy grows into Wahlberg, the bear starts getting on his nerves because it’s – surprisingly – disrupting his life.
The bear is described as a “carousing, irresponsible slacker”, but what else can a living teddy bear be? It’s not like it can go out and get a job down at Burger King.
MacFarlane is providing the voice and the bear is going to be CG. There’s a strong chance we may have to make a special sidebar entry into The Worst CGI In History list we ran earlier this year for this movie, but hopefully the bear effects will turn out fine and we won’t have to.
MacFarlane, who is making his live-action directorial debut with Ted, wrote the script with his Family Guy pals Alec Sulkin and Wellesley Wild, and they wrote it specifically for an R rating. That alone could be gold, I just wish they could have found someone with a little more comedic flexibility: Wahlberg is prone to extreme stiffness. Then again, maybe that’s the point… get the straightest straight guy around and let the bear do all the work.
Hopefully it’ll pay off.