A year ago, it was director Peter Berg and regular collaborator Mark Wahlberg looking to bring a re-imagining of cult 1970s action TV series The Six Million Dollar Man to cinemas. Now, however, Wahlberg is still in the lead, but Wild Tales**’ Damián Szifron has written and will direct The Six Billion Dollar Man.
This is a TV-to-film transition that has been stuck in development limbo for years as directors, writers, stars and even concepts have come and gone ranging from all action to a comedy reboot. Exactly how Dimension Films plans to exploit the idea is anyone’s guess at this point, because Szifron has worked on a new script.
Though Wahlberg has experience in comedy, he and the director are probably planning a more straightforward adventure, based on Martin Caidin’s 1972 tome Cyborg, which also fuelled the Lee Majors-starring series. Wahlberg will be Austin, a former astronaut who barely survives a horrific experimental plane crash. To save his life, he is given high-tech enhancements by scientists who replace his legs, his right arm and left eye with bionic systems. Thus gifted super-human abilities, he’s drafted in to work for the government as a secret agent.
“Writing the screenplay was such a fantastic ride and embarking on this journey with Mark, Bob and Stephen to take this story to a whole new level is simply spectacular,” says Szifron. “Growing up, these kind of films left an indelible mark on me and now it feels so good to be making one.” The film will be out, in the US at least, on December 22, 2017, with a September 2016 shoot on the books.