Wahlberg Talks Broken City, Bieber & Transformers

Mark Wahlberg stars opposite Catherine Zeta-Jones and Russell Crowe in the new crime-thriller Broken City, in theaters today, and the busy star explains how the film reminded him of Chinatown – and gives a status report on two of his upcoming movies: Transformers 4 and his Justin Bieber basketball project!

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"Maybe he's going to be taller than me by then," says Mark about finding a timeslot in 2014 to work with Bieber on their previously announced basketball movie that's in the vein of Martin Scorsese's The Color of Money (with the teen sensation playing the rookie to Mark's mentor). "The script is finally done; his guys love it, we love the script, it's just a matter of now he's touring and so we've got to figure out when we can do it. … A year from February is what they were talking about."

As for the next Transformers movie with his Pain & Gain director Michael Bay, Mark says, "If I give you any plot points I'll probably get fired, but I'm just excited. Michael and I had such a great time working on Pain & Gain and we really hit it off. … What I can say is it's completely different from the other three movies and I think it's going to be better."

In Broken City, Mark plays Billy Taggart, an ex-cop barely making ends meet as a private detective. When the mayor (played by Crowe) offers an opportunity to regain his badge and gun, he jumps at the chance. Billy is tasked to spy on the mayor's wife (played by Zeta-Jones), whom he thinks is having an affair that could interfere with his chances for re-election. But when a key player is murdered, Billy realizes he's been double-crossed – and ignites a war with the corrupt politician.

"It's just such a well-written script, it reminded me of the first time I saw Chinatown – these great, really rich characters [and] a world where nothing is really what it seems," explains Mark.

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Shot on location in New York with New Orleans locations doubling for the Big Apple, Broken City is directed by Allen Hughes and also stars Kyle Chandler, Alona Tal, Jeffrey Wright, Natalie Martinez, Michael Beach and Barry Pepper.