Justin Bieber and Mark Wahlberg's Basketball Movie Still a Go "If Schedules Will Allow It"

Pain & Gain's leading man tells us that the film's script is done and is great

By John Boone Apr 24, 2013 8:00 PMTags
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It's been a while since news first broke that Mark Wahlberg wanted to cast Justin Bieber as a street-hustlin' basketball star in Bieb's first feature film. Years, actually.

Ususally when a project sits around for that long without cameras rolling, it dies. Just another casualty of Hollywood that leaves fans wondering what could have been (and, in this case, whether Bieber has movie star potential).

But Wahlberg says that the duo's basketball project is still a go: "We got a great script," Wahlberg told us at the premiere of his latest film Pain & Gain. "So we'll see if schedules will allow it.

Wahlberg previously described the project to us as "The Color of Money, but in the world of inner-city basketball" (Money starred Tom Cruise as a pool hustler). He also told us that Bieber is "focused and he wants to have success in the movie world and acting as well," before concluding: "I think he'd do a great job."

As for the schedules in question, Biebs is currently hard at work on his Believe world tour until, at least, August, while Wahlberg has a number of projects lined up, including Transformers 4 and a sequel to the raunchy comedy Ted.

Plus, they'll have to factor in that vacation that Marky Mark thinks Bieber should take: "They're watching every move he makes, everything he says, and less is more," Mark told Vulture about the star's recent controversies. "Go take a vacation."