Boston native — and outspoken Catholic revert — Mark Wahlberg has a new project in the works on a subject that still an open wound in his hometown — the April 15, 2013, bombing near the finish line of the Boston Marathon.
From Variety:
Mark Wahlberg, Scott Stuber, Dylan Clark, Stephen Levinson and Michael Radutzky will produce “Patriots’ Day,” a movie chronicling the events of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, for CBS Films.
No director or actor is attached yet, but a source indicated that Wahlberg is considering coming on board for one of the roles. “Patriots’ Day” is based on the account of Boston Police commissioner Ed Davis. Matt Charman (“Bridge of Spies”) is writing the screenplay and Nicholas Nesbitt will executive produce.
Davis worked with the FBI, Watertown Police Department, Boston Police Department, Massachusetts State Police and local first responders to track, identify and apprehend the suspected bombers.
It marks an interesting confluence of news and entertainment:
It’s the first collaboration between “60 Minutes” and CBS Films. Radutzky is a “60 Minutes” senior producer who leads the broadcast’s creative development unit, 60 Minutes Productions.
CBS Films has secured Davis’ life rights as well as the information in connection with the “60 Minutes” story in which he appeared.
Wahlberg may play a role in the movie, which was announced on Tuesday, just as the defense rested in the federal death-penalty trial of accused bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. He’s charged with carrying out the attack along with his older brother, Tamerlan, who died in the aftermath of the event.
From FoxNews.com:
Lawyers for Boston Marathon bomber Dzkokhar Tsarnaev rested their case in his federal death penalty trial Tuesday after presenting a brief case aimed at showing his late older brother was the mastermind of the 2013 terror attack.
The defense admitted during opening statements that Tsarnaev participated in the bombings. But Tsarnaev’s lawyer said he was a troubled 19-year-old who had fallen under the influence of his radicalized brother, Tamerlan, 26.
Closing arguments will be held April 6.
The defense has made it clear from the beginning of the trial that its strategy is not to win an acquittal for Tsarnaev but to save him from the death penalty.
If the jury convicts Tsarnaev — an event that seems a foregone conclusion because of his admitted guilt — the same jury will be asked to decide whether he should be executed or spend the rest of his life in prison.
The Boston Herald is not impressed. In a story called “Carr: Cue the Violins for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s Sob Story,” Columnist Howie Carr wrote (also referencing the late Sen. Edward Kennedy’s involvement in the death of Mary Jo Kopechne on Chappaquiddick Island in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, in 1969):
[Dzkokhar] was turning his life around.
He was an aspiring rapper.
He was only blowing up the Americans other Americans couldn’t be bothered blowing up.
And of course we’ll be lectured how he didn’t get enough love from his family. Although you certainly can’t say the same of us taxpayers — what more could we have doled out to this family of shiftless Third World ingrates beyond their Section 8 apartment, EBT cards, WIC vouchers, MassHealth, city of Cambridge scholarships, etc.?
Some people may wonder, why have the Tsarnaevs and so many of their worthless ilk been allowed to immigrate to this country? The answer: Because they sought “asylum” under Section 208 (a) of the Refugee Act of 1980.
Would you care to guess who sponsored that legislation in Congress? Hint: Chappaquiddick.
Oddly, in the orgy of bumkissing at Columbia Point on Monday, not one mention was made of Teddy’s proud legislative accomplishment, designed to meet “the urgent needs of persons subject to persecution in their homelands.”
While Christ urges compassion for all, I suspect that Wahlberg will ultimately come down on the side of the victims, which included 8-year-old Catholic boy Martin Richard, whose autopsy photos were shown at Tsarnaev’s trial.
Images: Wahlberg, Wikimedia Commons; courtesy the Richard family
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