Go behind the scenes of the much anticipated Max Payne movie on Blu-ray disc with director John Moore and star Mark Wahlberg.
"Mark Wahlberg is perfect for Max Payne. I always had him in mind. I don't think anyone else could have done it," muses film director John Moore on the casting of the Hollywood superstar as the troubled game character when eu.playstation.com catches up with him on the press tour for the big screen adaptation of the classic PlayStation 2 action game, Max Payne.
The film, a stunning and stark translation of the 2001 classic that pioneered slo-mo gunplay, blockbuster action and a gripping story of a New York cop out to avenge the death of his wife and child is out now on Blu-ray Disc in its extended form with never before seen scenes, making for the ultimate Max Payne movie experience.
The definitive cut
"It's much longer. What I love about the videogame is the atmosphere and the effect," explains Moore of this brand new cut. "In the game you can really take your time. So the director's cut is a longer movie, you need a little bit more patience for it. It's a good 11 or 12 minutes longer." Moore believes that audiences at home will experience Max Payne like never before on PLAYSTATION 3 thanks to the fact he has worked very closely with 20th Century Fox's Blu-ray Disc encoding department, crafting a crystal clear picture and ear shattering sound.
In the film, Wahlberg's Max Payne is transferred to the cold case office where he can continue searching for the killer of his wife and child with the help of Alex (Donal Logue), his ex-partner who may have found a clue, and BB (Beau Bridges), the security chief at the pharmaceutical company where Max's late wife worked. As the story progresses, bodies soon begin piling up as a result of the Valkry drug on the street that is highly addictive and, for many who take it, brings about hideous hallucinations.
When one of the bodies on the street turns out to be Natasha Sax (Bond girl Olga Kurylenko) who Payne was the last to see alive, her sister Mona Sax (another famed character from the game series played by Milas Kunis) comes looking for him. Now Max must move fast if he is to find out who killed his wife and uncover the mysteries behind the superdrug polluting the streets of New York City.
Making Max Payne
"The film has the same characters and atmosphere as the game but it takes a piece of everything from that story and makes it a bit bigger," says Moore. "We've been very respectful. We haven't left anything on the side of the road that should have been in the movie. I'm confident that if you are a fan of the game, you will be a fan of the movie. The guys that made the game obviously love movies so it was a very natural process turning Max Payne into a movie."
Wahlberg agrees with Moore's perception of just how easy it was to keep the story of the game intact while at the same time fine tuning it so that it could play out as a great movie experience and yet still appease fans of the original plot. "It is pretty accurate. We took all the great things about the game, enhanced them, and took them to another level. We are definitely adamant about satisfying the diehard game fans. You don't want something that you love and then have it turned into something that it's not."
For the actor, playing the part of Payne required him to go to dark places in order to properly portray a man on the edge with nothing but vengeance on his mind, something that he admits was extremely difficult to do but necessary nonetheless. "It is not a fun place to go. My daughter and son wouldn't understand why when I came home on the weekends I'd be hugging them, and nearly in tears, but that's what the role is and that's where I go."
Max's return
Despite the film's dark subject matter, Wahlberg believes that there is definitely light at the end of the tunnel by the time the credits roll. "There is an underlying message of hope. Ultimately he hopes he is reunited with his loved ones once he handles his business and gets revenge and takes down these horrific people that are responsible."
The Blu-ray Disc includes great features such as a director's commentary from John Moore, Production Designer Daniel Dorrance and Visual Effects Supervisor Everett Burrell, an animated graphic novel fleshing out Max's wife backstory, and an insightful behind the scenes vignette that details over 30 scenes from the film. For Moore, packing in excellent features such as this is extremely important in delivering a Blu-ray Disc that fans of both the game and the film will appreciate.
The big question is: will there be a sequel? "If people love the movie and we can make a better one than the first, then it would be good," says Wahlberg of Max's return to the big screen. For now, fans can experience the definitive director's vision of Max Payne on Blu-ray Disc right now before he returns to PLAYSTATION 3 in 2009.
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