Wahlberg and Franco join ‘Date Night’

20th Century Fox’s newest comedy in the works is ‘Date Night’ which will star Steve Carrell and Tine Fey. Shawn Levy will direct the comedy written by Josh Klausner (Shrek the Third) about a married couple get into trouble after their routine date night goes horribly wrong.

After acquiring a top-shelf ensemble of actors for his sequel to ‘Night at the Museum’, Levy felt the drive to pursue a similar approach for ‘Date Night’. Already signed on to supporting roles are Leighton Meester (Gossip Girl), Common, Taraji P. Henson (Benjamin Button) and Kristen Wiig (SNL).

Now Mark Wahlberg and James Franco have also joined the supporting cast, making this an interesting mix of comedic and dramatic talent. Wahlberg will play a successful but ridiculously buff securities expert who is trying to score with Fey’s character. Franco will play a less-than-genius conman and criminal.

‘Date Night’ sounds like it will be funny, but once again I think a lot of it will be determined by the rating the movie shoots for. With this cast, I think it would be silly to shoot for PG-13 and restraining this cast in the process. The tone of the story reminds me a little bit of Scorsese’s ‘After Hours’ but is not likely to be nearly as dark.

[source: Variety]