unnecessary remakes
Truly scary: Is Justin Bieber reprising Mark Wahlberg’s psycho role from 1996thriller Fear?
In what would be one of the most extreme image makeovers in recent teen-pop history, Justin Bieber is reportedly considering a role in the proposed remake of 1996's Fear, a film that put then-25-year-old Mark Wahlberg on the acting map (and cemented his role as a dreamy but dark, brooding bad boy).
MovieWeb reports that an anonymous source says Bieber is “obsessed” with Fear and, while there are "currently no plans” to remake the film, the singer is eager to launch a serious acting career.
(The report was enough to send the Internet into a frenzy over the prospect of the Christian values-touting pop star reprising Marky Mark's role as a murderous teen lusting violently after Reese Witherspoon.)
If you don’t remember much about the mid-90s thriller, which also starred Alyssa Milano, here’s a refresher:
Mark Wahlberg [plays] the psychotic boyfriend of Reese Witherspoon, who torments both her and her family. Throughout the course of its runtime, his David McCall rapes a young woman played by Alyssa Milano, beheads a beloved family pet, carves tattoos into his chest, breaks the neck of a family friend, beats himself up, and threatens to shoot Justin Bieber's CSI: Crime Scene Investigation co-star William Petersen (see the connection there?) point blank in the top of the head. Not to mention the most iconic scene, where he fingers Reese on a roller coaster to the tune of The Sunday's "Wild Horses."
A change of pace indeed for young Bieber, who wasn’t even allowed into R-rated movies until last year (he turns 18 in March).
We've got to give the kid some props for avoiding the Nicholas Sparks trap; while stars like Miley Cyrus, Zac Efron and even, back in the day, Mandy Moore chose to break out of the pop star mold with roles in saccharine romance flicks, if Bieber appears in Fear he'll be taking a much bigger risk.
It wouldn't be his first slightly off-kilter role; last year, his guest spot on CSI culminated in a surprisingly graphic death scene (YouTube has about a million parody videos).
What do you think? Is Bieber ready to get dark and dirty?
