Actor Mark Wahlberg shares an emotional update on daughter Grace’s recovery from a frightening horse accident, calling equestrian sport “very dangerous.”(Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)
“It’s a very, very dangerous sport, but she’s so passionate about it,” he said. “All she wanted to do was get back on that horse — no pun intended. But she was chomping at the bit and worried that we would deem the sport too dangerous. But she’s so passionate, so dedicated.”
Grace, who shares her dad’s signature drive, has spent years crafting her skills as a competitive equestrian.
Wahlberg continued to praise her determination and work ethic, calling her “so disciplined.”
The actor — the youngest of nine Wahlberg siblings, including “Blue Bloods” star Donnie Wahlberg — shares four children with his wife, Rhea Durham: Ella, 22; Michael, 19; Brendan, 17; and Grace, 15; Brendan, Grace, Mark, Rhea and Michael (with his girlfriend Sunni Gaines) pictured(Steve Granitz/FilmMagic)
“[She’s got the] discipline of getting up at 4 o’clock every morning, going to the barn seven days a week, doing whatever she has to do to care for the horses, and training and everything,” Wahlberg said proudly.
The actor — the youngest of nine Wahlberg siblings, including “Blue Bloods” star Donnie Wahlberg — shares four children with his wife, Rhea Durham: Ella, 22; Michael, 19; Brendan, 17; and Grace, 15.
WATCH: MARK WAHLBERG’S WIFE STRUGGLING WITH KIDS GOING OFF TO COLLEGE: ‘SHE DOESN’T LIKE CHANGE’
Although Grace is the youngest of the family, Wahlberg said she’s shown maturity beyond her years.
“I kind of adopted that discipline when I became a parent,” he shared. “For her to have it at such a young age…” Wahlberg paused before acknowledging again how “very, very scary” the incident had been for him as a father.
Last week, Grace shared on Instagram that she’d been hospitalized after the accident.
Brendan Joseph Wahlberg, Michael Wahlberg, Mark Wahlberg, Rhea Durham, Ella Rae Wahlberg and Grace Margaret Wahlberg attend Amazon’s “Play Dirty.”(Theo Wargo/Getty Images)
In the post, the teen — who regularly competes in equestrian events — included a photo of herself lying in a hospital bed with her left arm in a black sling.
“no pressure we will be back,” she wrote confidently, alongside photos of herself clearing hurdles with her horse.
Mark Wahlberg’s daughter Grace is recovering from a horseback riding accident.(Getty Images)
“It’s a beautiful thing just encouraging them to pursue their dreams, to take a chance on themselves and to dream big,” he told Fox News Digital.
“But along with the big ideas, you have to do the little stuff to accomplish those big goals. So, doing the work, betting on yourself, not being afraid of failure and just staying as close,” the actor added.
Stephanie Giang-Paunon is an entertainment writer for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to stephanie.giang@fox.com and on Twitter: @SGiangPaunon.
Mark Wahlberg officially owns a $37 million home in Florida, joining the likes of President Donald Trump, Sylvester Stallone and Sydney Sweeney in the Sunshine State.
Wahlberg purchased Palazzo di Lago in Stone Creek Ranch, also known as “Billionaires Row,” near Delray Beach for $37,000,000 with furnishings included, Fox News Digital can confirm.
Michael Costello of Compass, who represented the buyer, and Senada Adžem of Douglas Elliman, who represented the seller, declined to comment on the transaction. Fox News Digital reached out to representatives for Wahlberg regarding the purchase of the home.
Wahlberg’s new pad totals 26,000 total square feet, including 17,797 square feet of interior living space. His new digs include a clubroom, wellness wing, car gallery, private tennis court and a saltwater lagoon pool.
Mark Wahlberg purchased a $37M home, joining President Donald Trump, Sylvester Stallone and Sydney Sweeney in Florida.(Getty Images, Daniel Petroni)
Wahlberg, who moved his family from Hollywood to Las Vegas in 2022, is the latest celebrity to make the move to Florida.
Florida real estate broker Darren Weiner explained the state’s allure to Fox News Digital. He listed a number of reasons, including the weather, exemptions to reduce property tax, lack of state income tax, along with Florida’s status as a “business-friendly state.”
SEE PHOTOS: MARK WAHLBERG’S FLORIDA HOME
According to Weiner, Florida’s size allows “something for everyone.”
“If you want to be in the heart of the limelight, there’s Miami, if you want privacy and farms, there’s Wellington (big billionaire and celebrity enclave for equestrian enthusiasts and their children), Ocala (John Travolta), and Southwest Ranches (numerous pro athletes),” he explained.
“Palm Beach has always been the uber wealthy’s winter retreat, but it has now become home to many more billionaires and celebrities,” Weiner said.
“I could go on and on about Ft. Lauderdale, Boca Raton, Naples, Tampa, Orlando and up the Eastern coast to Jacksonville.”
SEE PHOTOS: INSIDE MARK WAHLBERG’S FLORIDA MANSION
Stallone purchased a sprawling $35.4 million home in Palm Beach in 2021.
“First of all, the air seems to always be clean,” he told Fox News Digital about his change of scenery. “We’re very, very near the water and that makes my wife incredibly happy. It makes me happy, and it’s just something about it. It’s just so lush.”
“I went to college there for a couple of years. So, I’m not a stranger to the environment, but it fits my personality much better,” he concluded.
WATCH: SYLVESTER STALLONE SAYS FLORIDA ‘FITS MY PERSONALITY’ AS HE LEAVES HOLLYWOOD FOR GOOD
Sylvester Stallone and Jennifer Flavin moved to Florida in 2021.(James Devaney/GC Images)
Stallone’s wife echoed her husband’s sentiment. “It’s an incredible move, I have to say I’m really happy with our move and our change,” she told Fox News Digital in 2023.
“I was born and raised there, two of our kids were born there, but now everyone’s out, our daughters moved to the East Coast … so there wasn’t really anything left for me in California,” she continued. “A few of our best friends also moved, so I think it’s [a] good change, just making new friends, living a totally different lifestyle, I love it, I’m really happy.”
Sydney Sweeney purchased a home in Florida last summer.(Michael Buckner/Getty )
Sweeney joined the ranks of Florida-based celebrities in 2024. The “Euphoria” star snagged a $13.5 million home on oceanfront property, according to Page Six.
The 28-year-old’s sprawling 7,720-square-foot home is located about 30 minutes away from Key West, the outlet reported.
President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club is seen in the aerial view taken on Aug. 31, 2022.(AP Photo/Steve Helber, File)
As for President Trump, his florida estate – Mar-a-Lago – became his primary residence in 2019.
“I cherish New York, and the people of New York, and always will, but unfortunately, despite the fact that I pay millions of dollars in city, state and local taxes each year, I have been treated very badly by the political leaders of both the city and state,” he wrote on social media at the time.
The 126-room, 62,500-square-foot (5,810-square-meter) mansion is Trump’s primary home. It is also a club, private beach resort, historical artifact and banquet hall with a ballroom that features gold leaf.
Trump bought the property in 1985 for about $10 million, the equivalent of $30 million today. He invested heavily in its refurbishment.
On his latest appearance on Jimmy Fallon’s talk show, Mark Wahlberg recalled a funny incident at home, involving Kim Kardashian. He shared how a simple misunderstanding made his kids believe that she was coming to visit them.
Mark Wahlberg’s hilarious story involving Kim Kardashian
The Ted star recently shared a lighthearted anecdote about his family and the SKIMS founder.
Right at the beginning of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, the host asked Mark Wahlberg if he knew Kim Kardashian. After the actor responded positively, Fallon reminded him, saying, “Your family has a story involving Kim that doesn’t really involve Kim.”
“It has nothing to do with Kim but my kids,” Wahlberg shared. “I finally broke down and decided I was going to get my family, especially the kids, a dog,” recounting the events.
The Father Stu actor further talked about how he noticed a small dog in Beverly Hills and believed that it was a manageable dog for his home. “Is that the biggest the dog’s going to get?” he recalled the conversation with the dog’s owner. When the owner said yes, Wahlberg said he thought it was “perfect.”
After finding a similar dog, Wahlberg recalled saying to his kids to prepare them, “Somebody really important is coming today.” He added, “So immediately they go to my wife and say, ‘Kim Kardashian’s coming over today.’”
Mark Wahlberg stated, “My wife comes barging into this meeting. ‘Our house is a mess. You can’t have them over here with our house looking like this.’ I’m like, ‘Who? What are you talking about?’ She said, ‘They told me. The kids told me Kim’s coming over to the house.’ I said, ‘No, I got a dog,’” he shared, recalling the conversation.
“Then she got even more mad because she didn’t get to pick the kind of dog,” the BAFTA Award winner continued. “And I told her what kind of dog it was. She said, ‘That dog’s not coming in the house.’ I said, ‘Well, [then] you tell the kids when the dog gets here that the dog can’t come in the house,’” Wahlberg shared.
Talking about the day when the dog arrived, “The dog comes out of the crate, waddling out of the crate,” the Max Payne star shared. “My wife dives on the dog, basically squeezing the dog to death. And now we have six dogs in our house.”
Mark Wahlberg was on Jimmy Fallon’s talk show to promote his upcoming movie, Play Dirty. It is scheduled to release on October 1, 2025, on Prime Video.
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Municipal CEO Harry Arnett met his future co-founder in a setting familiar to many business leaders: the golf course. They bonded quickly over shared experiences — raising kids, navigating careers — and from that connection, a friendship grew. At first glance, it sounds like a typical entrepreneurial origin story.
But in Arnett’s case, the partner by his side wasn’t another executive. It was Oscar-nominated actor and Boston icon Mark Wahlberg.
“When Mark and I first discussed starting a brand, it wasn’t about the products,” Arnett tells Entrepreneur. “It was about how we could equip modern consumers with what they need to achieve their goals.”
They, along with film and television producer Stephen Levinson, identified a major white space at the intersection of fitness and fashion. Arnett formerly served as executive vice president at Callaway Golf, where he noticed a shift in how consumers engaged with brands.
“They were starting to seek direct relationships with brands they liked, primarily through digital media,” he explains. As EVP, he focused on revitalizing Callaway by reconnecting with consumers in a fresh, dynamic way — a strategy he calls the centerpiece of his community-building efforts.
After years of back-and-forth, the duo finally launched Municipal in 2019.
“The idea for Municipal was something I’ve wanted to do for a long time,” Wahlberg tells Entrepreneur. “It wasn’t about just attaching my name to someone else’s idea, which is often what celebrity-led brands are. Municipal is different — this is a real partnership from the ground up.”
The launch meant Arnett had to leave Callaway. “For me, that was an aha moment,” he says. “A chance to step away from a comfortable, familiar career and start over in pursuit of the best version of myself.”
“Municipal is about creating the best products in the world for workouts, athletic pursuits and everything in between, from the office to an active weekend,” Arnett explains. “It might sound like we’re trying to be everything to everyone, but when people see our product, they get it immediately — no one makes gear like we do.”
Contrary to standard practices, where brands are encouraged to hone in on a focus area, Arnett positions Municipal as more than just another activewear company, calling that label too “one-dimensional.”
He envisions the brand inspiring a drive to succeed in any arena — athletics, academics or beyond. A key part of this approach is Municipal’s Next Gen Brand Immersion, a free, week-long program that gives young people an inside look at every aspect of building a modern, purpose-driven brand — from product design and marketing to finance and operations.
“Too often, young people are fed the myth of overnight success and shortcuts,” Arnett says. “From our experience, those are fantasies. We saw an opportunity to use our platform to celebrate ambition, hard work, and self-belief in a way that feels ‘cool’ for kids.”
The idea for the program didn’t originate with Arnett or Wahlberg, but with Arnett’s youngest daughter, Kerris, who has shown a keen interest in Municipal.
“We’ve been talking about the brand since day one, and she got really passionate about it,” Arnett shares. “She said it would be amazing if more kids her age could experience these kinds of things firsthand, instead of just reading about them. I told her, ‘Karis, that’s a big idea.’”
Building on his daughter’s suggestion, Arnett sought to replicate what brands like Nike have done with sports camps — creating a talent pipeline for Municipal while connecting the company with the next generation of potential entrepreneurs and gaining insights into the preferences of the highly coveted Gen Z audience.
The effort culminated in a week-long, hands-on program giving ambitious 18- to 24-year-olds a real look at what it takes to build a modern, purpose-driven brand. Participants work directly with Municipal’s team across product design, marketing and operations, gaining experience in creating, launching and promoting a real collection.
The students even designed a capsule — featuring a hoodie, pants, shorts, t-shirt and hat — that Municipal will release and help market.
“It’s a way to engage with this group beyond just selling the best gear in the world,” Arnett explains. “These 25 students are leaders in their schools and have become rabid Municipal fans. They’ll tell their friends, and even when they go off to college, they’ll maintain a connection with us. The possibilities for extending that relationship feel practically endless.”
The mother of four posted a selfie with her sister, Clair Durham, after a gym workout, looking glowy and fresh.
Her caption took a hilarious turn when she called out her husband for his intense fitness regime.
You may also likeMark Wahlberg and Rhea Durham are beach-ready in Fiji
“No one I’d rather work out with…except @markwahlberg but the 3 times he’s trained me I generally throw up. @clairdurham,” she wrote under the picture.
Mark immediately jumped into her comment section, posting the laughing, clapping, and love heart emojis, clearly loving her complaint.
Rhea posted the hilarious picture calling out her husband for his intense workouts
The 53-year-old revealed that he found it easier to work out with other people as it helps him feel supported and focused during his sessions.
“I had spent so many years working out by myself, you know, and it’s what I needed to do, whether I was preparing for a role or just to kind of feel better and in life,” he told Today.
“And then when I found a community where there was a support system, the energy, obviously it’s incredible.”
The Ted actor and Rhea, a former model hailing from Florida, first met in 2001 at a press junket before he asked her out on a date. “We met in New York City,” he told People. “I asked her if she wanted to come out with me, and she said yes.”
“Then I asked her if she wanted to come to church with me the next morning, and she said yes again. So that was our first date: St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York.”
Rhea had modeled for French Vogue and Elle and walked the Victoria’s Secret runway before meeting Mark.
“I also knew that she loved me for who I am and that she was someone I could trust. Until I met her, I wasn’t ready to have a family.”
He continued: “You need the right woman in your life and that feeling that you’re going to be together for a long time. That’s especially important if you’re going to have children. Rhea always wanted to be a mother. She had a job, but her mission in life was to be a mother and to be a wife.”
“We share the same values. Obviously, the physical attraction was there, but that’s not what keeps a couple together.”
Mark Wahlberg and Halle Berry in The Union. Laura Radford/Netflix
I’m no stranger to lament when it comes to the disintegration of quality in what passes for movies today, but then along comes a bucket of swill like The Union to remind me things are even worse than I thought. This contrived, pointless, blindingly boring vehicle is a pathetic, desperate attempt to keep Halle Berry and Mark Wahlberg’s careers alive. Berry’s beauty is pleasant enough for a single-star rating, but the rest arrives six feet under and stays that way.
THE UNION ★ (1/4 stars) Directed by:Julian Farino Written by: Joe Barton, David Guggenheim Starring: Hally Berry, J.K. Simmons, Mark Wahlberg Running time: 109 mins.
She plays Roxanne, a sexy spy and two-fisted killer who works for a powerful secret agency called “The Union,” dedicated to saving the free world. (It’s not clear from what.) After a job that goes wrong in Trieste, Italy, resulting in a colossal massacre, The Union decides it needs a new face, plain as pizza dough and unrecognizable to the criminal underworld (translation: i.e., a nobody). Roxanne thinks immediately of her old high school boyfriend Mike (Mark Wahlberg), a construction worker in New Jersey whose banal life of sophistication and adventure extends no further than climbing ladders and hanging out with his brain-dead buddies drinking beer. When she looks him up to renew old memories, he moves in for a clinch, but instead of a kiss, she stabs him in the neck with a hypodermic tranquilizer and he wakes up in London, where the boss of The Union (J.K. Simmons) encourages Roxanne to teach him the power of persuasion any way she can.
Mike hasn’t seen Roxanne for 25 years, and now she’s recruiting him to risk his life as an innocent, inexperienced and untrained secret 007. The purpose of all this hugga-mugga is neither coherent nor believable, but the lure of being the next James Bond, delivering five million dollars to an army of the world’s most dangerous international thugs while simultaneously falling for a sexy spy with an assault weapon, convinces Mike to join The Union immediately (provided, of course, that he gets back to Jersey in time to be the best man in a pal’s wedding). He’s never been anywhere beyond downtown Hoboken, but before you can say Rambo, he’s dodging bullets, leaping from London rooftops, and driving on the wrong side of the street. The movie doesn’t make one lick of sense, which means it falls perfectly in line with most of the other moronic time-wasters that are polluting the ozone these days.
Roxanne focuses on rigorous physical and psychological training to prepare Mike for his first mission: infiltrating an auction offering stolen intelligence information to the highest bidder for hundreds of millions to retrieve a hard drive containing the names and identities of every spy in the history of Western civilization which, if obtained by the wrong spies, could destroy the free world. In a movie composed of endless predictable cliches, it’s got Iranian terrorists, a motorcycle race through the Italian streets, mediocre explosions and shootouts we’ve seen before in scores of Tom Cruise programmers. The goofball heroics are so second-rate they rob the film of any personality of its own. Hack director Julian Farino lacks the talent and the interest to explain what The Union is all about in terms anyone can understand. The script by joe barton and David Guggenheim never rises above a second-grade level, and there is nothing original or engaging about the film or the shallow performances in it. Halle Berry and Mark Wahlberg have zero chemistry, but who can blame them for being so bland in a movie that reads like a manual from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology?
It’s not surprising for an action picture to be this humorless, but how can any film be so noisy, deadly and boring at the same time? The Union is to movies what salami on rye is to four-star gastronomy.
Wahlberg played Sergeant Dignam, who worked in the Special Investigation Unit of the Massachusetts State Police Department, in the Boston-set film, which also starred Leonardo DiCaprio, Jack Nicholson, Matt Damon, Martin Sheen, Alec Baldwin and Vera Farmiga, among others.
“I was a little pissed about a couple things but look, it all worked out in the end, I think,” Wahlberg said on the March 14 episode of Josh Horowitz’s Happy Sad Confused podcast.
“Originally I was supposed to play another part. Originally, I was supposed to get paid,” he said, without elaborating. “And then even when we kind of agreed that I would play Dignam and I saw the advantages of playing that part and how I would approach the situation with everybody else playing opposite me, I then had another movie after.”
He said he had just finished filming Four Brothers and was about to start shooting Invincible.
“I was trying to grow my hair out, which is why I had that weird hair. You know, everybody’s like, what was that wig about? I was like, it was not a wig, I was just trying to grow my hair for the next film.”
Wahlberg has been open about his clashes with Scorsese before and now says he understands his director’s point of view.
“I completely understand where Marty was coming from. He had to deal with Jack, he had to deal with Matt and Leo and Alec and everything in the studio and everybody else who was in the cast and then I was supposed to be in and out in five weeks,” he said. “And so I went off to go and shoot Invincible, got my hair extensions, came back and then they were like, oh you gotta take out the extensions. I was like, [this] shit took eight hours. I’m not gonna take this out. We had a couple of issues.”
Wahlberg ended up earning his first and only (so far) Oscar nom for the role (he lost to Little Miss Sunshine’s Alan Arkin, though the film won four Oscars, including best picture and best director). At the time, he came to realize he could “have some fun” with the character. Wahlberg — who grew up in Boston — previously said he had conversations with Scorsese about improvising.
“Ultimately, I think when I read that particular role, I was like, OK, this is, this is a good role,” he said. ” This is an opportunity for me to really kind of go off and have some fun for me. Originally, I was just thinking, ok, we gotta make this as realistic and credible as possible. It’s Boston, it’s gangster shit. You don’t see too many of that, those movies. And I was thinking kind of broad big picture, not necessarily my own individual goals or even the opportunity for me as an actor. And then when I read the part again, I was like, OK, there’s, there’s something here.”
Asked if Oscar nominations and other accolades matter, Wahlberg says it’s nice when it happens, but not something he’s focused on.
“Look, you want the movie to be recognized, you want to be recognized — it helps the ultimate success of the film,” he said. ” I think it enhances the box office quite a bit, especially if you have a movie coming out at that time of year, but it’s not as high on the priority list as it used to be, let’s just say that.”
So, would he rather “movie make a billion dollars or win an Academy Award,” as Horowitz put it.
“If I have a nice back end, I would rather [have the money],” Wahlberg said. “But that being said, look, I mean, you know, I’m competitive guy. I work really hard and I try to make the best movies possible. I always want to be the best. I approach it as very much as an athlete, as a fighter, all those things. So I only wanna win.”
Horowitz also asked Wahlberg to set the record straight about turning down Steven Soderbergh’s 2001 hit heist comedy Ocean’s Eleven. Wahlberg said he’d already committed to starring in Planet of the Apes for Tim Burton and in The Truth About Charlie for Jonathan Demme and therefor was unable to do Ocean’s.
“I was asked to do the movie and what happened was we asked if they would wait for me, but I had already committed to working with Tim Burton and Jonathan Demme,” he explained. “And for me, it was even though those movies did not turn out to be good, those experiences were great. And you know what, at that point, I was still really trying to grow as an actor.”
He said some parts of the two films did not excite him at the time, but he still had a great experience working on both.
“I was thrilled about the opportunity to work with Tim, [but I] wasn’t thrilled about the idea of doing that remake, but it was worth going to take that risk to work with Tim Burton,” he said of 2001’s Apes. “Same thing with Jonathan Demme when I read the script, I’m thinking, oh my God, is this Philadelphia? is this Silence of the Lambs? No, it was a kind of loose remake of Charade. So, no, I was not like thrilled when I was in the beret and the scarf, the baguette, but had one of the great times in my career, my life, off set. I had a great time working on that movie. I really learned a lot, worked with some hugely talented people.”
Southern California’s luxury real estate market never sleeps. But this past year, it collectively caught its breath.
Luxury sales slowed down in 2023 — a combination of soaring interest rates, a newly introduced “mansion tax” and an inevitable drop-off from a pandemic market when megamansions flipped like hotcakes.
In 2022, there were 17 home sales above $50 million and 48 over $30 million in L.A. County, according to the Multiple Listing Service. In 2023, there were only five sales over $50 million and 23 over $30 million.
But even in a down year, there were still plenty of headlines. Jay-Z and Beyoncé set the all-time price record in the state of California, while other celebrities sold homes and left L.A. just in time to avoid paying taxes under Measure ULA.
Here are the top sales of the year.
$200 million
Bought for $200 million, the 40,000-square-foot mansion overlooks the ocean in the affluent enclave of Paradise Cove.
The L-shaped house, which topped the previous record of $177 million, looks more like an airplane hangar or supervillain’s lair than a home. It was built by Tadao Ando, a decorated Japanese architect who also designed a home for Kanye West a few miles down the coast. Ando brought in 7,645 cubic yards of concrete to erect the 40,000-square-foot home.
It never officially hit the market, so photos are scarce. The property is perched above Malibu’s Paradise Cove and features concrete hallways and walls of glass that open to a swimming pool and lawn overlooking the ocean.
$60.85 million
Another power couple — Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck — claimed the second-highest home purchase of the year when they shelled out $60.85 million for a five-acre spread in Beverly Crest. High interest rates weren’t a problem; they didn’t need a 30-year-fixed. The pair paid in cash.
The deal marked the end of a year-long house hunt for Lopez and Affleck, and the house boasts an array of amenities that few other mega-mansions can match. Across 38,000 square feet are 12 bedrooms, 24 bathrooms, 15 fireplaces, a movie theater, wine cellar, nail salon and sauna, as well as a 5,000-square-foot sports facility with a boxing ring and pickleball court.
The $60.85-million sale actually came at a discount; the home originally hit the market with a gargantuan price tag of $135 million.
$55 million
Built in 2014, the European-inspired mansion comes with 12 bedrooms, 20 bathrooms, a skate park, movie theater and grotto.
(Anthony Barcelo)
Some scratched their heads when Mark Wahlberg unloaded his Beverly Park mega-mansion for $55 million in February. The movie star spent years designing the French-inspired palace, and he originally asked $87.5 million when he first listed it in 2022.
But Wahlberg was a motivated seller. He moved to Nevada last year, and by selling the home in February, he avoided Measure ULA, a transfer tax that took effect April 1 and would’ve charged a 5.5% tax on the sale. At $55 million, Wahlberg’s tax bill would’ve been more than $3 million.
The European-inspired showplace is truly one of a kind, featuring amenities such as a five-hole golf course, driving range, grotto-style swimming pool and skate park. Wahlberg, a native of Massachusetts, also added a Boston Celtics-themed basketball court during his stay.
$52.056 million
Malibu’s second entry on this list comes via attorney Stuart Liner and his wife, Stephanie Hershey Liner, who sold their beach house on Point Dume for just over $52 million.
The Liners have made a fortune flipping houses over the years, including doubling their money on a house they bought from actor Danny DeVito. They scored a hefty profit here as well; records show they paid $21.758 million for the oceanfront home in 2020 before extensively remodeling the place.
The 6,000-square-foot house comes with a swimming pool and tennis court. It sold to Tom van Loben Sels, a partner at Bay Area tax firm Apercen Partners.
$52 million
Built in 1998, Villa Firenze combines three lots across nearly 10 acres and centers on an Italian-inspired mansion.
(Hilton & Hyland)
For years, Villa Firenze was a cautionary tale, an extravagant reminder that while fortunes can be won in Southern California’s lucrative real estate market, you have to be strategic in how you sell to truly cash in.
Hungarian billionaire Steven Udvar-Hazy was not. The airplane mogul built the Italian-inspired mansion in 1998 and listed it for $165 million in 2017, which at the time was one of the most ambitious asking prices in California history.
Clearly overpriced, the house sat on the market for years until it was auctioned off for $51 million in 2021 to biotech entrepreneur Roy Eddleman, who, for some reason, tried the same thing as Udvar-Hazy.
Eddleman quickly attempted to flip the house for a massive profit, putting it back onto the market for $120 million just a year after he bought it. Unsurprisingly, there were no takers, and he died before it sold.
His estate slashed the price on the luxurious villa, which features 40-foot palm trees, 20-foot ceilings and a two-story library complete with a secret passageway that leads to a bedroom and bar.
After a year of price cuts, it finally sold in February for $52 million, just $1 million more than Eddleman paid for it at auction two years prior.
After a decorated career in television, The Family Plan director Simon Cellan Jones has returned to feature films for the first time in two-plus decades.
Cellan Jones’ feature career began with 2000’s Some Voices, a British drama starring a still emerging Daniel Craig, and he soon followed that up with 2002’s The One and Only, before spending another two decades in television, helming episodes of How to Make It in America, Treme,Jessica Jones, Boardwalk Empire, Ballers and Shooter. Four of the aforementioned shows were executive produced by Mark Wahlberg, and when the actor needed a filmmaker to direct March 2024’s Arthur the King during the pandemic, he gave Cellan Jones a second go-round in the feature space. The shoot went well, so well that after Cellan Jones locked picture, he quickly started prepping their current Apple TV+ release, The Family Plan.
The action-comedy centers around Wahlberg and Michelle Monaghan’s characters’ suburban family, as they’re forced to go on the run when Wahlberg’s Dan Morgan, a former government assassin, has his cover blown. Monaghan, whose character Jessica is unaware of her husband’s past life, played a similar role alongside Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible 3, but she and Cellan Jones were determined to make her more active in this story than she was in the beloved spy franchise.
“Instead of getting an actress to play second fiddle as the wife part, [Monaghan] rose to the challenge and made herself, in a lovely way, an equal part of the movie,” Cellan Jones tells The Hollywood Reporter. “I wanted all the family members to have equal involvement in a piece that’s about something and not just be a gratuitous star vehicle.”
Cellan Jones is also looking ahead to March’s release of Arthur the King, which chronicles the true story of an adventure racer who bonds with a stray dog during an endurance challenge. Based on Mikael Lindnord’s life and memoir, Arthur – The Dog Who Crossed the Jungle to Find a Home, the film’s production ended up being rather therapeutic for Lindnord.
“We had Mikael Lindnord, the co-writer of the memoir, on set, and tragically, just before we started shooting, the real dog died of old age,” Cellan Jones says. “So he was heartbroken, but it was wonderful for Mikael to see the film being made before his very eyes because it sort of brought the dog back.”
Below, during a recent conversation with THR, Cellan Jones (pronounced Keth-lan Jones) also discusses his memories of working with a 31-year-old Craig, as well as reuniting Monaghan with fellow Mission: Impossible 3 co-star Maggie Q in The Family Plan.
So how does one end up directing back-to-back Mark Walhberg movies?
I don’t know, but I’m pretty happy about it. The film we did before The Family Plan, Arthur the King, is coming out in March, and it’s a slightly smaller movie. It was one of those movies where I knew Mark a little bit, and I knew people who worked with him, but we’d never done anything. It was the time of the pandemic, things got a bit crazy and I just happened to be in the right place at the right time for Arthur the King. They needed someone urgently, and I was there. So we started working together, and I just loved it. I love working with someone as good as Mark. I don’t want to sound like too much of a fanboy, but he’s a movie star for a reason. He’s also just utterly brilliant to work with. He’s fun, applied and committed, so I was blessed. And then with The Family Plan, perhaps I knew him a bit better, and while I don’t know if I was the first choice, they were more interested in working with me. And I had so much fun on this film because it’s a bit more daunting. It had a much bigger budget than I’d worked with before, but after a few weeks, I went, “Wait a minute, I can do this.” So I just loved it.
Simon Cellan Jones on the Set of The Family Plan
Courtesy of Apple
Did you basically lock picture on Arthur the King and immediately start prepping The Family Plan?
Pretty much, yeah. It was quite rapid, but you don’t turn down opportunities like this.
You directed on multiple shows that Wahlberg executive produced, starting with How to Make It in America and Boardwalk Empire. Did you encounter each other on any of those sets?
Absolutely. I met him a few times, and we were friendly. We’d say hi, but I didn’t know him well at all. He works on so many things, and we passed like ships in the night. But these films were a chance to get to know him properly.
Mark said not too long ago that he’s planning to dial back his output, but considering that you just made two movies with him, did you get any sense that he’s slowing down anytime soon?
No, I would still class him as the hardest working man in showbiz. He is an entrepreneur. He does all sorts of stuff like that. He is working a lot in the city of Las Vegas, and he’s really excited about making more films there. So maybe he will ration himself, but I’ve not seen any sign of a slowdown.
The Family Plan and Arthur the King are your first features in two-plus decades. Did you just get comfortable on television and not really make any further overtures in the feature world?
No, I did. I just landed into that thing where I was doing well in TV. The films I made were good, but they were quite small. So perhaps I didn’t quite catch on in those days, but while not everyone gets a second chance, I did this time and I’m relishing it. I’m more confident, more excited and not taking anything for granted. So I’m up to this challenge, and I’m excited to work in this field a little bit more. I’m not assuming I will, but I’m ready to grab the bigger budget films by the horns.
Michelle Monaghan and Mark Wahlberg in The Family Plan
Courtesy of Apple
This movie isn’t the first time Michelle Monaghan has played a woman who’s unknowingly married to a secret agent of sorts. Did she have a laugh about this?
She will have a laugh about everything, but she’s really good here. Instead of getting an actress to play second fiddle as the wife part, she rose to the challenge and made herself, in a lovely way, an equal part of the movie. One of the strengths of the film is the chemistry and the relationship between her and Mark.
Yeah, Michelle’s character is more active than she was in the Mission: Impossible franchise. She also has the best line of the movie: “There’s nine other events …”
Yeah, it really was [a priority]. It’s an entertaining film. It’s an action movie and comedy, but I do think it’s a film that studies family. It’s not done in a pretentious way, but it’s a film that examines what it’s like to be part of a family, not only the cool stuff, but the boring habits. I know we’ve got a high-concept premise here, but Mark’s character is a contentedly bored suburban father who does the school run and stuff like that. And when we first meet the family, they’re a little dysfunctional and they don’t communicate very well. So that’s why I wanted all the family members to have equal involvement in a piece that’s about something and not just be a gratuitous star vehicle.
To close out the Mission: Impossible 3 talk, you also reunited Michelle with Maggie Q. Did they comment on this at the time?
They certainly did, and I recently worked with Keri Russell, who was also in Mission: Impossible 3. So we exchanged texts about how great it would be to get the three of them together in the same project again.
Wahlberg’s character has a fight scene in a grocery story while carrying his baby. Did the baby do their own stunts?
The baby did a lot of her own stunts, but that was one of those scenes where we got away with it. When we shot it, I was going, “Oh my God, this is going to be a disaster.” And the baby, quite reasonably, did not really appreciate being strapped to somebody and then flying around a supermarket with somebody looking like he was trying to hit her. So we had to be very patient there, but that’s mostly real footage of the baby. There’s very little CG and very little tricky photography.
Did the insurance agent loosen their tie and pour themselves a drink prior to this sequence?
(Laughs.) Well, they would have, but I’m a big believer in protecting your actors, whether they’re in their forties or 18 months. So the baby was very much our priority, and Max was played by twins [Iliana and Vienna Norris], as is often the case. One of them enjoyed the work more than the other, but they were both film stars in the end.
How complicated is it to shoot in Vegas?
Well, it was great, actually. A lot of people don’t realize it, but Las Vegas is a pretty film-friendly town. Their business is excitement and entertainment, and they love a show of any kind. But it’s a lot of work because there’s literally millions of tourists there the whole time. So the city, the MGM and the casinos we worked with were super supportive. Of course, Mark is also a Las Vegas resident and that carries a lot of weight. If you mention his name, it opens a lot of doors.
Mark Wahlberg and Simon Cellan Jones on the set of The Family Plan
Courtesy of Apple
You also shot the third act at that really cool Marriott Marquis in Atlanta. It’s been a popular location the last decade (The Hunger Games2 and 3, Loki, Flight), but it always stands out.
Yeah, the architect, John C. Portman Jr., designed many buildings like that, and they’re crazy. The whole interior of that hotel is absolutely a set. There’s no CG involved at all, and it’s just a spectacular location.
On your first feature, Some Voices (2000), you directed Daniel Craig at an embryonic stage of his career. Your movie was only the second time he’d had top billing, I believe. What memory has stuck with you the most from those days?
Well, funnily enough, I’d worked with him shortly before that on a big, big TV show called Our Friends in the North, where he was even more embryonic. I still see him, but he’s pretty much the same as he’s always been. He’s obviously this megastar now from Bond and everything else, but what struck me about him was that he’s a real sweetheart. He doesn’t really want to be a showoff or get too flash. I love actors like him who love to work and come to set committed, and Mark was the same way. So I’ve only got happy memories of Daniel Craig, and I’m so, so pleased that he became so successful. It’s really deserved.
Another one of the Wahlberg-produced shows you directed on was Ballers. Are you the least bit surprised that John David Washington reached the next level?
No, and that’s another guy with a lot of humility. He’s got a famous dad, but you wouldn’t know it. He would never even mention it or talk about it. He was kind of quiet, but he was a sweetheart on set. He was just born with that kind of charisma, so I’m not surprised that he’s gone on to great, great things.
You also directed two episodes of Jessica Jones, and I always noticed how much attention that show devoted to doors, whether that was shots of doors opening and closing or shots through doors or with doorways clearly visible. Was that part of the defined visual grammar of the show? Was it openly discussed?
It was gently mentioned, and sometimes, you don’t need to give a director much of an idea for them to embrace it. So it just became one of the motifs of that show. It was because the main character lives on two sides of the same door. So I guess that was the reasoning, but that was a cool and fun show to work on, and it’s always lovely to shoot in New York.
And lastly, what’s the elevator pitch for Arthur the King?
It’s a totally different film than The Family Plan. I’d call it an adventure film. Mark Wahlberg plays a top-level adventure racer. They are these crazy guys who run three marathons a day for a week. He’s at the top level, but he’s never won a big race. So this is his last chance to win, and once he’s in a jungle, he meets a dog. It’s a dog movie. But what I love about this film is that it’s not only heartwarming, but it’s tough and gritty as well. It’s about a man and a dog who need each other. They’re both looking for something and they find it in each other.
And it’s based on a true story [Arthur – The Dog Who Crossed the Jungle to Find a Home]. In fact, we had Mikael Lindnord, the co-writer of the memoir, on set, and tragically, just before we started shooting, the real dog died of old age. So he was heartbroken, but it was wonderful for Mikael to see the film being made before his very eyes because it sort of brought the dog back. Not everyone is a dog person, but I am. I’ve got three, and even though they drive me crazy, they mean an awful lot.
*** The Family Plan is now streaming on Apple TV+.
Would it have killed him to quit sit-ups for a few months? Maybe load up on some Häagen-Dazs? Famously, Mark Wahlberg wakes in the wee hours for a 3:30 a.m. workout — perhaps he could have treated himself to a five o’clock lie-in? Whatever the case, the star has made no concessions to dadbod reality in “The Family Plan.” Playing milquetoast car salesman Dan, a married father of three whom nobody knows used to be a high-level government assassin, he strips off early in proceedings — on a night of abortive anniversary lovemaking with his weary wife — to reveal a torso as jacked as the day is long. Yet those enviable xylophone abs run counter to the slim comic premise of Simon Cellan Jones‘s formulaic shoot-’em-up: He’s a stone-cold killer, but everyone around him sees only a schlub.
That’s the exact word thrown at Dan by his wife Jessica (Michelle Monaghan), and their two sullen teenagers Nina (Zoe Colletti) and Kyle (Van Crosby), all of whom regard his dull job, cornball personality and comfy homebody routine with some degree of affectionate contempt. (Only their third child, perma-smiling infant Max, ever looks at him with something approaching wonder.) Wahlberg, however, doesn’t present as schlubby, bodily or otherwise: Even in the film’s early scenes, he carries himself with a bluffly macho always-preparedness. We’re supposed to be surprised when, ambushed by thugs in the middle of a mundane supermarket run, he suddenly springs into alpha ass-kicker mode, necessitating an awfully bloody cleanup on aisle three. Instead, we wonder why it took him so long. He’s an assassin, you say? Well, that figures.
If this not-so-split persona shrinks the farcical potential of “The Family Plan” — the premise of which really calls for the sturdy squareness of a Matt Damon — that’s typical of a film carrying the trappings of an action-comedy, but not the jokes. A workaday script by David Coggeshall (a writer more versed in franchise horror, including “Orphan: First Kill”) repeatedly underlines the mismatch between the wholesome white-bread family at its center and the hard-boiled genre proceedings in which it increasingly embroils them, but with no accompanying sense of giddy absurdism. They merely adapt to the action until they’re efficiently kicking ass too: The family that slays together stays together, and “The Family Plan” means that more earnestly and sentimentally than you might think.
The shameful B-movie backstory that has led Dan to beige family life in suburban Buffalo is sufficiently vague and unconsidered that he can explain it in a single rushed sentence to his slack-jawed kids: “Before I met your mom, I was a covert assassin, then I escaped that life and now they’ve found us.” The “they” in question are a typically dour, motiveless crew of shadowy operatives with non-specific vengeance on the brain, led by a grandhamming Ciarán Hinds: 18 years after Dan escaped their mercenary ranks and assumed his drab new identity, a social media mishap blows his cover, and they want him back, dead or alive. After the aforementioned supermarket bust-up, he hastily bundles his bewildered family into the car and heads on what they think is an impromptu vacation to Las Vegas.
Cue a cat-and-mouse road trip, with Dan casually dispatching heavies whenever his loved ones aren’t looking — so casually, in fact, that the film never gathers much tension as it putters toward the two-hour mark. A seasoned TV director, here a long way from his Daniel Craig-starring indie breakout “Some Voices,” Cellan Jones lends proceedings some impersonal gloss (a succession of climactic Vegas-set showdowns gleam with the requisite fluorescence) but no real rhythm or snap: Each setpiece is composed and paced much like the last, which only amplifies the sense of Dan as some kind of unflustered, largely unsympathetic man-machine, paused only by the script’s fleeting interpersonal conflicts.
Handed a role that mainly demands she react to her onscreen husband with alternating exasperation and exhilaration, a game Monaghan tries to give Jessica some flickers of inner life and desire: “I wish our lives were bigger,” she says early on with genuinely affecting, woebegone resignation. By the time she’s putting her kickboxing classes to use against a lithe villainess on a vertiginous hotel rooftop, one supposes she’s got her wish. The kids, too, gradually get the action-hero dreams they never knew they had fulfilled via their own meager subplots — including one that ultimately scolds parents for clamping down on first-person-shooter video games, which it seems are a pretty good training ground for real-life shootouts with dad. Turns out, he’s pretty tough! But seriously, kids, haven’t you seen his abs?
The Family Plan release date has been set for December 15, 2023, when the film will premiere on AppleTV+. Alongside the official announcement of the release date, Apple has also released a new poster for the film, showcasing the starring cast of Wahlberg, Monaghan, Zoe Colletti, Van Crosby, Saïd Taghmaoui, Maggie Q, Ciarán Hinds.
The Family Plan will be directed by Simon Cellan Jones, who is set to reunite with Wahlberg after working together on the upcoming Arthur the King film. The project is written by David Coggeshall.
Check out the new The Family Plan key art below:
What do we know about The Family Plan?
“Dan Morgan (Mark Wahlberg) loves his quiet suburban life as a devoted husband, father of three and successful car salesman. But that’s only half the story,” reads the official synopsis for the film. “Decades earlier, he was an elite government assassin tasked with eliminating the world’s deadliest threats. When enemies from his past track him down, Dan packs his unsuspecting wife (Michelle Monaghan), angsty teen daughter, pro-gamer teen son and adorable 10-month-old baby into their minivan and takes off on an impromptu cross-country road trip to Las Vegas. Determined to protect his family — while treating them to the vacation of a lifetime — Dan must put his long-dormant skills into action, without revealing his true identity.”
Wahlberg is clearly no stranger to the action genre as he previous starred in The Big Hit, The Corruptor, Planet of the Apes, The Italian Job, Max Payne, and more. He was last seen in Sony’s live-action adaptation of Uncharted and in the Netflix comedy Me Time with Kevin Heart.
The Family Plan is produced by Wahlberg and Stephen Levinson through their Municipal Pictures banner along with David Ellison, Dana Goldberg and Don Granger for Skydance.
Mark Wahlberg turned 52 on June 5, and the actor celebrated with a pop-up of his clothing line, Municipal, in Boston. But before he got the business bug, Wahlberg grew up in nearby Dorchester, where he began his career in the early 1990s in music with Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch and modeling with Calvin Klein.
The “Good Vibrations” kept coming for Wahlberg, whose breakout acting role in Boogie Nights led to other leading performances and working with Hollywood legends in movies such as The Departed.
Now, Wahlberg is the proud owner of several businesses that span a variety of industries including fitness, food, and even clothing. Wahlberg’s latest venture is turning Las Vegas into “Hollywood 2.0,” where he is building a “state-of-the-art” studio that will create 10,000 jobs, he told Fox Business.
“The average salary would be $100,000 more than what it is now,” Wahlberg said. The average pay for a studio technician in Nevada is currently $58,000. “We want to train people both in front of and behind the camera, create jobs, most importantly, first and foremost, for locals,” Wahlberg added.
In his 2021 HBO Max docuseries Wahl Street, which he produced, Wahlberg said he loves business and entrepreneurship. “I think, ultimately, at the end of the day, I’ve got the bug. I’ve got the bug for business, and I’ve got people who are, like, putting in parts of their life savings, and betting their future on me and us,” he said in the doc, adding, “So I’m going to work twice as hard to make sure that I am bringing something to the table that’s beneficial to other people.”
How many businesses does Mark Wahlberg own? Keep scrolling for a look behind the businesses.
What are Mark Wahlberg’s businesses?
1. Closest to the Hole
Wahlberg launched his production company, Closest to the Hole, in 2004. Since then, the company has produced or co-produced more than 15 films including the HBO series Entourage (2004–11), which was loosely based on his own life and rise to fame in Hollywood. In 2015, Entourage the movie grossed around $49 million worldwide.
2. Unrealistic Ideas
Wahlberg created Unrealistic Ideas, an unscripted production company focused on podcasts and documentaries, with documentary filmmaker Archie Gips and manager/producing partner Stephen Levinson in 2018. The company produced McMillon$, about a fraud scheme that plagued McDonald’s, and Wahl Street about Wahlberg’s life.
3. Wahlburgers
Wahlberg founded the burger restaurant Wahlburgers in 2011 with his brothers Donnie Wahlberg, known as a member of the long-time music group New Kids on the Block and CBS’s long-running drama “Blue Bloods,” and Paul Wahlburger, a chef.
The family business was featured in the reality show “Wahlburgers” on the A&E network from 2014 until 2019. Today, the business has 50 locations and $100 million in annual revenue.
4. Aquahydrate
Wahlberginvested in Aquahydrate, electrolyte-enhanced water, in 2012, per Food Navigator-USA. Forbes reported in 2015 that Wahlburger invested in the brand when it was in “rough shape” in terms of cash flowand recruited other celebrity investors including Sean “Diddy” Combs to back the company. Together, Diddy and Wahlberg invested $20 million into the business.
Wahlberg founded an all-natural nutrition company called Performance Inspired in 2016 with industry veteran Tom Dowd. The products, including protein powder, can be found at major retailers like GNC. The brand reportedly generates $4 million in annual revenue.
Wahlberg bought a pre-IPO stake in F45 — a chain of gyms that specializes in HIIT-style workouts that aim to help you burn 750 calories in a 45-minute session — in 2019 when the business was valued at roughly $450 million, per Bloomberg. He owns a 1.73% stake in the company, Reuters reported in October. Wahlberg became the company’s chief brand officer in March 2023.
Wahlberg started his clothing line, Municipal, in 2020.
“We wanted to create stuff that looked cool, that fit and felt great, stuff that you could wear to work, you could wear it to work out and wear out at night,” Wahlberg told Rolling Stone. “We wanted to create something that was a great value proposition to every guy and gal who’s out there working hard to be the best version of themselves, you know?”
The brand expects to grow in the billion-dollar athleisure industry and continue to increase sales by leveraging brand awareness with high school sports and college athletes, according to Forbes. The first store is set to open in California in 2023. Although there isn’t any news on any other stores at the moment, the brand recently opened a pop-up in the Boston area.
What is Mark Wahlberg’s net worth?
With all of Wahlberg’s various business endeavors and his long career in the entertainment industry, it’s no surprise he is worth a heaping fortune. In 2020, Wahlberg’s reported fortune was around $58 million, garnering his spot on the 100 Top Earning Celebrities list for that year. However, more recent reports estimate his net worth to be closer to $400 million on account of his nine-figure businesses.
George Clooney confirmed “some very famous people,” including Mark Wahlberg and Johnny Depp, turned down the chance to star in the 2001 hit “Ocean’s Eleven”.
Clooney was joined by the likes of Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Don Cheadle and Julia Roberts in the star-studded flick. However, during an interview at the 2023 TCM Film Festival, Clooney admitted some said “no” to the film.
The actor insisted a lot of people wanted to work with director Steven Soderbergh at the time.
He recalled, “Steven had just done ‘Erin Brockovich’ and ‘Traffic’, and he was nominated for [an Oscar for] directing both films.
“So, people really wanted to work with Steven.”
George Clooney speaks onstage at the screening of “Ocean’s Eleven” during the 2023 TCM Classic Film Festival on April 14, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.
— Charley Gallay/Getty Images for TCM
Elsewhere during the chat, Clooney revealed how they got Julia Roberts on board to play his character Danny Ocean’s ex-wife Tess.
“We sent Julia a script and I wrote a note saying, ‘I hear you get 20 [million dollars] a picture now,’” Clooney said, according to Variety. “And we sent her a $20 bill… It made her laugh, and yes, she jumped right on board.”
PlayStation expanded beyond the console in 2022.Illustration: Angelica Alzona
The decision-makers behind Sony’s console juggernaut spent a lot of 2022 putting down railway for 2023 and beyond, dumping money and time into growing the PlayStation brand beyond the funky-looking device in your entertainment center. The company wants the PlayStation name to be ubiquitous, and that has meant expanding not just in the form of video game acquisitions and new services, but bringing the PlayStation line into new mediums and markets. So, while Horizon Forbidden West and God of War Ragnarök bookended the PlayStation 5’s 2022 on the video game side, the brand was busy throughout the year.
Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg brought Nathan Drake and Sully (or people going by those names) to the big screen in 2022.Photo: Sony Pictures
PlayStation becomes a movie and TV brand
PlayStation Productions, Sony’s film and television subsidiary dedicated to putting out adaptations based on the company’s video games, released its first project this year in the form of the Uncharted movie. Featuring Spider-Man star Tom Holland as a vague amalgamation of Nolan North’s original interpretation of Nathan Drake and his own version of Peter Parker if he was slightly more stoic, the film also has Mark Wahlberg as a character who shares his name (and little else) with Nate’s father figure, Victor “Sully” Sullivan. The movie is, at best, aggressively fine. It took a critical beating, but did rake in over $401 million globally at the box office. Sony has plans to make Naughty Dog’s cinematic action game series into a full-blown movie franchise.
Whether any of the above will be any good remains to be seen, but Sony is making deals to put PlayStation characters on more screens and subscription services. The company has clearly decided that PlayStation games aren’t enough, and that they can instead be the origin point for an expanded universe that ties into the games its first-party studios are putting out. Speaking of…
Sony and Naughty Dog released The Last of Us a third time with its PS5 remake.Screenshot: Naughty Dog / Kotaku
PlayStation movies and TV get re-released tie-ins
Putting an Uncharted movie in theaters and a Last of Us show on TVs is one piece of Sony’s new business model, but the company is also pairing these live-action adaptations with re-releases of the source material. Just a week before the Uncharted film launched, Sony released the Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection, which brought both Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End and Uncharted: The Lost Legacy to PlayStation 5, a console they were readily playable on through backward compatibility. Oddly enough, this only included the last two games in the series, rather than the three games that preceded them. But it was an Uncharted product that people could buy after seeing the movie, or even before, as it included a free ticket to the film.
The Last of Us Part I, a remake of the 2013 original, launched in September to both praise for the source material and the technical upgrade the release brought to it, as well as a slew of criticism surrounding its $70 price point. The remake carried a cloud over it after a Bloomberg report exposed internal politics at Sony surrounding the project, which began under a PlayStation support studio before gradually becoming a Naughty Dog product. The whole situation stinks to high heaven, but it did conveniently fit into Sony’s business model of making its games into an extended universe. Now, there will be a (near) full-price Last of Us game on store shelves when the HBO show premieres on January 15.
God of War came to PC this year, but its sequel only came to consoles.Screenshot: Sony Santa Monica / Kotaku
PlayStation continues to expand beyond consoles and to PC
Both of these re-releases were part of a PlayStation initiative to get more of its games on PC. Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves brought the series (again, just the last two games, rather than any of the foundational ones that came before) to PC for the first time in October, and The Last of Us Part I will bring Joel and Ellie’s story to a computer near you in March. But it wasn’t just Naughty Dog’s games that got PC love, as God of War, Sackboy: A Big Adventure, and Marvel’s Spider-Man and its Miles Morales spin-off also launched on PC in 2022.
All that being said, we still have yet to see PlayStation release its first-party games on both its consoles and PC simultaneously. God of War launched four years late on PC this year, but its sequel, Ragnarök, only came to PS4 and PS5 in 2022. It’s been heartening to see Sony make more strides in the space, but hopefully in 2023 we see a more immediate commitment to bringing its games to those who play on PC.
Sony paid a lot of money for Bungie, but Destiny 2 will remain multiplatform.Image: Bungie
Outside of the AAA space, Sony also acquired Savage Game Studios, whose founders previously worked on mobile hits like Angry Birds and Clash of Clans, in an attempt to kickstart a new mobile gaming division. The studio is apparently at work on a new project for phones and tablets based on an established PlayStation IP.
The PlayStation VR2 will launch next year, but won’t be usable with old PSVR games.Image: Sony
PlayStation VR2 seems like an upgrade, but with caveats
Sony kicked off 2022 by announcing its second virtual reality headset, aptly named the PlayStation VR2. It sounds like a meaningful upgrade from the original PlayStation VR headset Sony released in 2016, with an impressive-sounding OLED, 4K resolution display, dedicated controllers so you won’t have to use your old PlayStation Move wands anymore, and a single-cord setup that will make using the whole thing more manageable. However, as news has come out about the device, things have gotten a bit more troubling.
The most egregious drawback Sony has confirmed is that original PlayStation VR games won’t be compatible with the PSVR2 headset. Senior Vice President of Platform Experience Hideaki Nishino said on the PlayStation Podcast that this is because “PSVR2 is designed to deliver a truly next generation VR experience,” citing much of the new headset’s tech as being incompatible with old PSVR games. Regardless of whatever explanation Sony has to offer, it’s a bummer that the PlayStation 5 seemed to be developed with more future-proofing in mind and now we’re dealing with backward compatibility issues again. So if you want to keep playing your old PSVR games, don’t throw your old headset out.
PlayStation Plus now has tiers, and whether you’ll get much value on them depends on where you live.Image: Sony
PlayStation Plus launches new tiers with new problems
PlayStation Plus, Sony’s long-running subscription service for playing games online and collecting a vast array of “free” games, saw a revamp this year that put it more in-line with Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass. It doesn’t seem like it’s gotten the same resounding love as its direct competitor, though. PlayStation Plus now has multiple tiers, which each have different included features and perks.
The cheapest is Essential, which is basically just what PlayStation Plus has been for years: online play, sales, cloud storage, and a few free games each month. The second tier is called PlayStation Plus Extra, which includes all of the above, as well as an on-demand library of PlayStation 4 and 5 games. The most expensive tier is PlayStation Plus Premium, which adds a streaming library of classic games from across all the PlayStation consoles, and even the PlayStation Portable.
The PlayStation 5 is two years old now, but the console is still relatively difficult to find due to supply chain issues that are expected to last well into 2023, if not longer. But as we get further away from the original launch and demand starts to calm down, it’s become marginally easier to track down and buy a PS5 of your own. Brick-and-mortar stores are still hit or miss, but Kotaku had a bit more luck finding the box on digital storefronts. So hopefully by the time Spider-Man 2 launches next year, those still looking for a PlayStation 5 won’t face a massive ordeal.
The PlayStation 4 is nine years old and still got most of Sony’s big games in 2022.Image: Sony
The PlayStation 4 hangs on a little bit longer
That being said, Sony still wasn’t quite ready to let go of the PlayStation 4 in 2023. The company’s biggest games this year, Horizon Forbidden West, Gran Turismo 7, and God of War Ragnarök, all launched simultaneously on the PS4 and PS5 and were pretty alright experiences on the last-gen console. You know, if you’re cool with your PS4 sounding like it’s ready to take off on a flight across the Atlantic.
But looking forward, it seems 2023 will be the year Sony really starts to leave the old system behind. That’s a respectable ten years of service since its original 2013 launch, and PlayStation Studios now seem squarely focused on the PS5. Spider-Man 2, the VR spinoff Horizon Call of the Mountain, and Insomniac’s take on Wolverine were all announced as PS5 exclusive, so hopefully as this transition takes root, the PS5 becomes more readily available next year.
“Being in such a specific pigeonhole right now, it’s very strange,” Pattinson told Vanity Fair in 2011, a person couldn’t swing a vampiric baseball bat without hitting a Team Edward shirt. “Having a persona people recognize, it’s the thing that probably gets you paid the most—but it’s also the thing that virtually every actor in the world doesn’t want. ’Cause, like, no one would believe me if I wanted to play something ultra-realistic, like a gangster or something.”
In the decade since Twilight’s final installment, Pattinson worked to prove just the opposite and undo his teen heartthrob status, trading mainstream fare for challenging roles in films from David Cronenberg,Werner Herzog,Claire Denis, and Nolan. And yes, he even got to play that “ultra-realistic” gangster in 2017’s Good Time, a hard-boiled thriller directed by Benny and Josh Safdie. Pattinson’s blockbuster origins and recent indie presence collided for his weirder, more detached take on Bruce Wayne in The Batman earlier this year.
Dwayne Johnson: Lean Into Your Strengths
Content
This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.
Nearly two decades before Johnson was considered a presidential contender, not to mention one of the biggest stars in the world, it was unclear if he would even be taken seriously as an actor. He was credited only as The Rock, his professional wrestling name, for his first several films, including The Mummy Returns and The Scorpion King. At times, Hollywood struggled with which space to slot Johnson into—testing him as a family-friendly lead in The Game Plan and Tooth Fairy and brawny supporting player in comedies like Get Smart and The Other Guys. But it was his casting in the Fast & Furious franchise as Hobbs, a character he’s played in five films and a spin-off, that first truly tapped into Johnson’s built-in action-star charisma.
At the time, Johnson says he reinvisioned his career around fellow heartthrobs turned movie stars like Will Smith and George Clooney. “I said, ‘Those are the guys who are on top. And I don’t know how, but I feel like if we can all go shoulder to shoulder on this, I feel like there’s a pathway to that kind of success, only different and maybe better or bigger,’” he told Vanity Fair. With box office smashes such as Jumanji,San Andreas, and the recently released Black Adam, it appears that Johnson’s vision has been realized to the tune of $430.4 million in box office receipts in recent years.
Zac Efron: Explore Different Genres
Content
This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.
BOSTON — A home where entertainers Mark and Donnie Wahlberg’s family once lived was damaged by fire Sunday in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood, the fire department said.
The blaze in a nearby home at around 10 a.m., but spread to another three buildings because of strong winds, Fire Commissioner Paul Burke said. Two firefighters suffered injuries and one resident was taken to the hospital. There was no immediate word on the cause of the fire.
One of the homes involved was 25 Peverell Street, where the Wahlberg family used to live. Mark Wahlberg visited the home during the production of his Netflix movie “Wonderland” in 2018 and 2019. In one video posted on social media, the actor stands shirtless in front of the house, describing it as “where it all started.”
The homes affected by Sunday’s fire were a type of classic Boston architecture called a triple decker, a three-family home that’s common in the city.
“It was a total of four three-deckers that were on fire, mostly in the rear of the buildings on the porches,” the fire commissioner told WCVB-TV. “It’s a very tight street.”
Boston Fire Department spokesperson Brian Alkins said 15 people were displaced by the fire. He estimated damage to the buildings at $2 million.
