You guys may pretend to be all interested in Thor or Captain America or X-Men: First Class but I know deep down when you read those news articles you’re thinking, “But what is Justin Bieber up to? Why isn’t he in this movie? And when is he going to make a movie with Mark Wahlberg???” Well, your sleepless nights are now over folks, because Deadline is reporting that Mr. Abs and Lil’ Lord Flophair are teaming up to make an as-yet untitled serious drama about basketball. Coming out of Paramount, the script will be penned by Ian Edelman, creator of HBO’s How To Make It In America, and while there are currently no details on the story, it is being described as The Color of Money meets The Karate Kid. With Justin Bieber. I feel like they should always tack that on there too.
So why Bieber? Well from Wahlberg’s end, the idea for the film came to him when he and producing partner Stephen Levinson saw this:
Flophair got some game. And from Paramount’s end, they’re still rocking a monster boner from the performance of Bieber’s concert film Never Say Never, which raked in $97 million worldwide (on a $13 mil budget). So throbbing is Paramount’s boner from that film that they even handed the G.I. Joe sequel to its director, Jon Chu. Now you may be thinking, but how does a concert film being a hit translate to Bieber being able to headline a dramatic film? Well, I don’t think anyone cares. I have to assume that when the suits at Paramount meet Bieber all they see is an anthropomorphic jumble of dollar bills, gold coins, and rare jewels, much like when a starving cartoon character will envision his companion as a turkey leg or pot roast.
But hey, if Mark Walhberg could become an Oscar-nominated actor, I see no reason Bieber can’t.