Mel Gibson And Mark Wahlberg’s Big Team-Up Is Moving Forward With A Major Update

Mel Gibson and Mark wahlberg are going to make their movie!

By Nathan Kamal | Published

This article is more than 2 years old

mel gibson fatman

A new movie starring Mel Gibson and Mark Wahlberg is going to be released earlier than expected. Father Stu, a biopic film about a Catholic priest named Stuart Long, has been acquired by Sony Pictures. The movie has now been scheduled is to be released on April 15, which fittingly is the Catholic holiday Good Friday in 2022. It is also planned to be released in theaters, which is not always a given in the current cinema climate. The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has caused film studios to rethink release strategies, and more often than not, even major films are being released on streaming platforms. 

Father Stu will follow the life of Father Stuart Long, a college football player and champion boxer. After retiring from professional fighting, he worked briefly in films as an extra and gained some small roles in Hollywood. However, it was a near-fatal motorcycle accident that caused him to have what he described as a religious experience and he converted to Catholicism. Father Long joined a seminary in Oregon in the early 2000s. Around that time, it was discovered that he was suffering from inclusion body myositis, an inflammatory condition that currently has no cure. He was ordained to the priesthood in 2007, and died aged 50 in 2014. Mark Wahlberg will play Father Long in the film.  

Both Mark Wahlberg and Mel Gibson are known for their vocal Catholic faith. While Wahlberg is a noted Roman Catholic, GIbson belongs to a minority schism known as Catholic Traditionalism. Gibson is also known for his alleged history of anti-Semitic and racist tirades that caused him to be a pariah in Hollywood for some years.

Despite the public nature of his outbursts and his former partner filing a domestic violence-related restraining order against him, Gibson has been gradually making his way back into the public eye. He remains an extremely divisive figure in Hollywood, given his actions and words, but Hollywood also apparently finds it hard to completely abandon an Oscar winner who was also a major box office draw for decades. Wahlberg has also had his own legal troubles when it comes to alleged racist hate crimes, though they have not impacted his career in the same way. 

tom holland mark wahlberg uncharted

Mark Wahlberg is set to co-star in the long gestating Uncharted film. Along with current MCU Spider-Man Tom Holland, he will headline the video game adaptation film as main character Nathan Drake’s mentor Sully. The Uncharted film has been so long in production that he was originally slated to play Drake, and has since aged out. The film will also star Antonio Banderas and Sophie Ali. He will also be starring in another biopic called Arthur the King, this one about Swedish racing team captain Mikael Lindnord and his dog Arthur. In addition to Wahlberg and Mel Gibson, Father Stu will star Jacki Weaver and Teresa Ruiz. It will be directed by writer Rosalind Ross in her feature film debut. The popularity of faith-based films has risen sharply in recent years, and doubtlessly, Father Stu will do well with Wahlberg and Gibson behind it.