A few months ago rumours emerged that Mark Wahlberg and director Peter Berg were thinking about making a movie version of The Six Million Dollar Man. It turns out that was correct, but six million doesn’t buy you what it did in the 1970s, so Deadline reports that it will now become The Six Billion Dollar Man. That’s inflation for you.
The movie is about Steve Austin (Wahlberg), a former astronaut who nearly dies after crashing an experimental plane. He is saved when scientists give him bionic replacements for both legs, his right arm and left eye. He becomes a powerful weapon for the government as a secret agent for the Office of Scientific Intelligence.
The TV series, which starred Lee Majors and ran for five seasons between 1974 and 1978, was based on the 1972 novel Cyborg by Martin Caidin.
It appears getting the movie off the ground hasn’t been plain sailing though. While Universal own the rights to The Six Million Dollar Man TV series and were said to be backing the film when it was first rumoured, in order to move things forwards The Weinstein Company’s Dimension Films label has now stepped in to back the movie, although Universal may still part-finance.
Peter Berg, who previously worked with Wahlberg on Lone Survivor, will direct. They hope to shoot the film sometime next year for a 2016 release.