HOLLYWOOD, Calif.—The New York Post has a tantalizing item about a collaborative effort between Boogie Nights star Mark Wahlberg and his producing partner Steve Levinson for a “sprawling” HBO movie on the porn biz. The item says writer James Frey also is attached.
“The plot will focus on a giant video company under siege from internet competitors and a girl from the Midwest whose boyfriend convinces her to move to Los Angeles to become a star,” says the Post.
Wahlberg, of course, starred in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights, released in 1997, which told the story of a well-endowed male prostitute who achieves fame in the Other Hollywood, ultimately to crash and burn under the influence of an assortment of drugs before finding a semblance of redemption. He is apparently onboard as executive producer only this time around.
Of the current project, Frey—who found his own level of infamy in 2006 after The Smoking Gun published an article claiming Frey had fabricated large parts of his memoir, A Million Little Pieces—told the Post, “"We're going to make a sprawling epic about the porn business in L.A. We're going to tell the type of stories no one else has told before, and go places no one has gone before."
Now where have we heard that before?
In addition to his role in Boogie Nights, as an executive producer of Entourage, Wahlberg has mined the adult industry to acclaim and big ratings. Sasha Grey stars in the show as the main character Vincent Chase's love interest in a story arc that spans seasons.
