Well, M. Night Shyamalan is casting again, and for those of us wondering who else will appear in the movie aside from Shyamalan himself, the answer is one Mark Wahlberg (according to a Variety article). Fresh off of his Oscar nod for his fantastic work in The Departed (and most likely timed with his film Shooter in theatres right this very minute), it looks like Wahlberg is finally getting the props he deserves.

This time Shyamalan is tackling a natural disaster in The Happening, a film which, from the description, sounds much like Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds. When a natural disaster (rather than aliens, because, well, Shyamalan’s plowed that road) threatens the world, a man (Wahlberg) takes his family on the run as all hell breaks loose and the world goes into the proverbial crapper.

As long as the son doesn’t survive after running off into the middle of an explosion (and yet magically find his way home before dad) I’ll be happy.

But in all seriousness, this sounds like it has a lot of potential. One of the best parts of Signs was how Shyamalan handled the world coming apart at the seams, and he’s more than proven his ability to focus on the story of a family during world-changing events. And Wahlberg is an excellent choice. Time and again he’s managed to play both down-to-earth, reality-based characters and the heroic, nigh epic types. Now that he’s finally old enough to play the father figure, I’m curious to see how he handles a part that at one time would have gone to his friend and previous co-star George Clooney.

The Happening will be filmed in Shyamalan’s native Philadelphia and already has a release date of next June.

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