Fans of the ultra-dark world of the Max Payne video game series should be happy to hear that the cast and crew are aiming to make a dark, moody, violent movie that stays true to the game's roots. ReelzChannel sat down with Max Payne himself, Mark Wahlberg, at Comic-Con to talk about the project.

When he was first approached for the project, Wahlberg was reticent of doing a video game movie. "When I read the script, I was like wow this is awesome! I asked where it came from and they said it's based on a video game and I said, 'No, I don't want to do that.'" (Laughs)

After giving the game more of a chance, Wahlberg realized there was a deeper story than he first realized. "When I saw the game, I saw the story is really elaborate. There's a lot going on there."

"My assistant is a gamer, so I let him play the game every day from the start of production until the day of wrap. I didn't want to play it because I have an addictive personality and I have more responsibility now than I've ever had with kids and everything else."

Wahlberg has portrayed similar characters in the past, but he says this one will really "push the envelope. I've done characters that showed glimpses of what I hope to accomplish in this movie with Fear and Four Brothers and The Departed, but I wanted to take this to a whole other place. Thankfully, John [Moore] (director) was also in the head-space of doing something that really was layered. I wanted to really push the envelope."

After the debacle of this summer's less-than-well-received The Happening, Wahlberg was concerned about his career's future. "I remember, The Happening had just come out and John showed me some stuff in the editing room. I was just screaming with excitement. I was so happy that my career was saved!" (Laughs)

Hopefully, Max Payne will put Wahlberg's career back on track when it releases October 17, 2008.