Mark Wahlberg has been set to star in The Happening, the thriller that M. Night Shyamalan will direct in August in Philadelphia for 20th Century Fox, reports Variety.
Wahlberg will play a man who takes his family on the run when the world turns upside and a cataclysmic natural crisis threatens to end the world.
Shyamalan brought back his Unbreakable and The Sixth Sense producer Barry Mendel to produce with Sam Mercer, and also brought with him a co-financier in India-based UTV.
The studio has carved out plans to release the film worldwide on Friday, June 13, 2008.
“Friday the 13th has very distinctive, global connotations, which make it the ideal launching pad for this frightening thriller,” 20th domestic distribution president Bruce Snyder said in a statement.
“Mark has a unique blend of charisma, humanity, authenticity and skillfulness as an actor,” Shyamalan said. “All of which coalesced at this moment in his career, making him the perfect person to take on the role of Eliot Moore, the science teacher at the center of this event.”
[Variety, via Coming Soon]