Six Billion Dollar Man: Mark Wahlberg Says There’s Finally “Hope” for Reboot

In spite of an almost decade-long wait for the movie to get into production, Mark Wahlberg claims there is a light at the end of the tunnel for Warner Bros.’ embattled update of The Six Billion Dollar Man. Based on the TV series The Six Million Dollar Man, the movie is set to star Wahlberg as an Air Force pilot whose life is saved when he is loaded up with state of the art technology, making him a living supercomputer. Since it was announced in 2015, the movie has had a string of bad luck. Originally planned for a release in 2018, it fell off Warner Bros.’ release calendar that year and has never made it back on.

“By the time it comes out, we’re going to call it 60-year-old 6 Billion Dollar Man,” Wahlberg joked back in 2020. “They’ll have to change the title to that. At least then you’ll know why. You know what, it’s one of those things where we just have to get it right. Bill Dubuque is writing the script now. So, I think we have an amazing idea. We’ll have an amazing screenplay and we’re supposed to be getting it Friday, so I’m thinking this week. Hopefully, we’ll then pick a start date and a release date and go make the movie.”

It has been three years since then — and Wahlberg, now 52, is three years closer to being 60 — but the actor says there is finally hope for the movie.

“You know what, I think there is finally hope for that to happen,” Wahlberg told Collider. “And I think it’s kind of actually a lot to do with this movie, because hopefully Skydance will have the rights, if not fully buttoned up now, very soon, and we’ll fast track that movie to get made. So, I’m still not out of the fight, I’m still grinding every day to get it made. You know, its tough to get certain things made it’s very difficult, it was an uphill battle, but I think certain ones are worth just seeing through to the end.”

The “this movie” in question is The Family Plan, the movie Wahlberg is currently out promoting on behalf of Skydance, the studio behind the Terminator and Top Gun movies.

The Six Million Dollar Man was a TV series. After three pilot movies in 1973, the show ran for four seasons, ending in 1978. While Mission: Impossible has been a more or less nonstop moneymaker for Paramount, almost no other property based on an old TV show has been so lucky. Numerous attempts to launch blockbuster franchises based on classic TV shows have come and gone, including a Man From U.N.C.L.E. movie that hit in 2015 — ironically just as Six Billion was announced.

Wahlberg has been attached every step of the way as an actor and producer.