For their third film together, Mark Wahlberg and director Peter Berg are taking a cinematic look at the deadly 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. Patriots Day, featuring music from the Oscar-winning duo of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, centers on Wahlberg as Boston Police Department Sergeant Tommy Saunders in the aftermath of the bombing and the ensuing manhunt for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (Alex Wolff).
Speaking with the Boston Globe earlier this year, Wahlberg said he was initially reluctant to join the project. "There's huge pressure to get this right, but we're committed to doing that," Wahlberg said in March. Berg, who's previously directed Wahlberg in Lone Survivor and Deepwater Horizon, added that his team has approached the shoot with a sensitivity toward not offending locals.
"We're aspiring for real authenticity so that means filming in real locations," Berg said of the production. "We will always ask and we will always be transparent with what our ask is. If there's one person who’s uncomfortable, we're more than happy to go elsewhere." According to the Globe, Berg's crew "encountered resistance" when attempting to shoot in Watertown and on the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth campus.
Wahlberg and Wolff are joined by the one and only John Goodman, Kevin Bacon, J.K. Simmons, and Michelle Monaghan. Patriots Day hits theaters Dec. 21.
