If Entourage's Vince Chase had half the career of the man he was loosely based on, he wouldn't have had time to develop that nasty drugs problem or upset half of Hollywood with dodgy lifestyle choices. Unlike Chase, who's got one Scorsese picture to show for Olympic levels of faffing about, Mark Wahlberg has bounced from a barnstorming turn in The Fighter to a highly promising lead role of a different kind, this time in Contraband, a thriller set in the Deep South.
The film's new poster - about which we're contractually obliged to use words like 'gritty' and 'moody' - is below for your viewing pleasure.
A reshaping of acclaimed 2008 Icelandic thriller Reykjavik-Rotterdam, **Contraband **looks a level above other recent Euro-remakes like Russell Crowe flop The Next Three Days. There are similarities, though. Wahlberg, like Crowe, must turn to crime to rescue his wife (Kate Beckinsale) - this time from some very bad people, Giovanni Ribisi's crime capo among them, in the New Orleans underground.
A one-time smuggler now working as a security guard, Wahlberg's Chris Farraday goes back to the old business, heading to Panama with best mate Sebastian (Ben Foster) and coming back with millions in counterfeit bills.As the movie's trailer suggests, things goes awry pretty darn fast.
Caleb Landry Jones, Lukas Haas, Diego Luna and JK Simmons round out a tasty line-up of acting talent, while Baltasar Kormákur, a cast member in Reykjavik-Rotterdam, is on the other side of the camera here. **Contraband **is out on March 16, 2012.